T h e r i s e o f p o p s n e w

p r i n c e s s

l o r d e

s u m m e rj a m st h e i d e a l m u s i c f e s t i va l

w a t e rw o r l dg o i n g d e e p w i t h a f r e e d i v e r

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beyond the ordinary

April 2014 $2.50

g u e s t e d i t o r

p h a r r e l l w i l l i a m s

h a s a n e w a l b u m a n d t h e w o r l d

a t h i s f e e t

THE CONVERSE CONS STAR PLAYER PLUS SNEAKER

CONVERSE.COM/CONS

Daytona A dayand a nightat therace-season opener, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

54

I built a career

out of loving music.

Pharrell Williams, Page 34

takeover the man to the immediate right of this sentence is perhaps known to most of you. Youve all danced to his songs, watched his videos, and maybe even follow his hats twitter account. on January 20, Pharrell Williams wheeled around downtown L.a. in sweltering weather on a BMX bike on our behalf, and then reclined in a giant rented rv and dropped knowledge on careers, women, and why hes over success. Since hes cool, we figured the things he likes are cool, so we decided to just devote a chunk of our magazine to them (p. 34). and then we added a bit more culture, like our dream music festival (p. 78), since festival season is upon us. Welcome to our Pharrellel Universe. We hope you like it.

the World of red Bull

04 the red bulletin

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freediving french freediverguillaume nry reflectsafter the death of afellow competitor.

24

Chris davenport the veteran skier unveils his newest challenge: climbing colorados 100 highest peaksand skiing down.

lordefresh off wins at the grammys, the new Zealand pop princess starts a summer festival tour in america.

daniel riCCiardothe newest member of red Bull racings formula one team shares his secrets to behind-the-wheel training.

ryan sandesthe ultrarunner plots a harrowing adventure across a mountainous region of his native south africa.

85

68

Bullevard 08 game on!

Really, its OK if Mario is still your favorite video game character.

Features

24 FreedivingThe risks of exploring the depths of the ocean on one breath.

34 Pharrell WilliamsIs the multihyphenate entertainment mogul bad at anything? (No.)

48 Ryan SandesGoing the distanceand then somein South Africa.

54 Rolex 24 at DaytonaBehind the scenes at one of racings premier events.

62 LordeDespite it all, you know she really wants a tiger on a gold leash.

68 Chris DavenportTackling the many 13,000+ peaks in Colorado.

78 Dream Music FestivalFrom the lineup to the food, we create the perfect summer festival.

action 84 travel Climbing rocks in Rio 85 training Nothing but a G Force thing86 nightlife Go big in Abu Dhabi87 my city Street artist LEBO on Miami88 enter now Wings for Life World Run90 music Bombay Bicycle Club92 games Infamous: Second Son94 buyers guide Summer preview96 save the date Events to attend98 magic moment Skating on steel

at a gLanCe

62

48

aPRiL 2014

the red bulletin 05

ContributorsWHOS ON BOARD THIS ISSUE

THE RED BULLETIN USA (ISSN: 2308-586X) is published monthly by Red Bull Media House, North America, 1740 Stewart St., Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Periodicals postage pending at Santa Monica, CA, and additional mailing offices.

ATTENTION POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE RED BULLETIN, PO Box 1962, Williamsport, PA 17703.

General Manager Wolfgang Winter

Publisher Franz Renkin

Editors-in-Chief Alexander Macheck, Robert Sperl

Director of Publishing Nicholas Pavach

U.S. Editor Andreas Tzortzis

Deputy Editor Ann Donahue

Copy Chief David Caplan

Production Editors Nancy James, Marion WildmannManaging Editor Daniel Kudernatsch

Assistant Editors Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher,

Arek Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager

Contributing Editor Stefan WagnerBullevard Georg Eckelsberger, Raffael Fritz,

Sophie Haslinger, Marianne Minar, Boro Petric, Holger Potye, Martina Powell, Mara Simperler,

Clemens Stachel, Manon Steiner, Lukas Wagner

Creative Director Erik Turek

Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English

Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz

Photo Director Fritz Schuster

Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Director), Rudi belhr (Deputy Photo Director),

Marion Batty, Eva Kerschbaum

Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mhlbacher

Head of Production Michael Bergmeister

Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O. Sdaba, Christian Graf-Simpson (app)

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Marketing & Country Management Stefan Ebner (manager), Elisabeth Salcher,

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Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer subscription price: 6 USD, 12 issues,

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Printed by Brown Printing Company, 668 Gravel Pike, East Greenville, PA 18041, www.bpc.com

The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa,

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Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com

After shooting Shaun White and the Indiana Pacers the weeks before, the Scot was exhausted when he arrived in L.A. to shoot Pharrell Williams for our cover. Not that anyone noticed. The New York Times Magazine and GQ regular hustled the Grammy winner through several setups in an empty downtown. Pharrell was easygoing and simple to shoot, says MacKay. The biggest challenge for me was the L.A. sun, as my pasty Glasgow skin burns very easily. Story starts on p. 34.

Finlay MacK ay

The author of a book about rugby and

articles about the wider world of sports, Pelatan dove deep into the life and times of Guillaume Nry, one of the worlds top proponents of freediving. The two Frenchmen conversed about the limits of human endurance and the notion of BASE jumping underwater. Competition in freediving is important, but is secondary to the aesthetic: It has to be beautiful, says Pelatan. Submerge yourself on p. 24.

jazz KuschKeLook in the passport of the writer and

photographer, and youll find stamps from adventure-sports assignments in Indonesia, Angola, Malaysia, Runion, Mozambique, and many more. You could say hes seen it all, yet he found the scope of Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesels Drakensberg Grand Traverse genuinely surprising. This is next-level endurance stuff: less about breaking records than about weather, terrain, and altitudeall the variables of the Berg. His story begins on p. 48.

Frdric Pelatan

In love with snow since his dad first took him ski touring in his backpack, Fohrman hasnt left the white stuff. For TRB, he turned his lens on ski mountaineer Chris Davenport and friends and their attempt to ski all 100 of Colorados highest peaks. Theres not much better than traveling the often unexplored nooks and crannies of Colorado, camping at trailheads, and exploring the mountains every day with a positive, funny group of friends. Hike up, drop in on p. 68.

ian FohrMan

the biggest challenge for me was the L.A. sun on my pasty skin. Finlay MacK ay

06 the red bulletin

G A R R E T T L E I G H T C A L I F O R N I A O P T I C A L

VirtualGarrettleight.com#GLCO

Reality165 South La Brea Ave.Los Angeles California

PhotoCristina Dunlap from GLCO Spectacle #1

D o n t j u s t s e e t h e m , b e t h e m

next-level actingNow that Oscar nominees go virtual, is the game-movie divide sealing shut?

Is it just moonlighting or a glimpse into the future of acting? Juno and Inception star Ellen Page lent her talents to PS3 adventure Beyond: Two Souls, contributing body movements, facial expressions, and emotions to leading lady Jodie, in the same way actors are motion-captured for movies. (Footage of the game was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival last year.) Willem Dafoe co-stars; together, their characters try to solve the riddle of life after death. The in-game action is typically Hollywood, as is the scandal: Pics from a hacked version of the games shower scene showed up onlinewithout the TV-movie friendly steam.

A virtual Ellen Page in Beyond: Two Souls (main photo) after motion-capturing (inset) that mapped her body and facial expressions for her virtual doppelgnger.

a c e l e b r a t i o n o f v i D e o g a m e s

l e t s p l a y

08

A L L T H E B E S T

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS In GAMInG Sentimentalists have good reason to celebrate in 2014, with a bunch of anniversaries marking the debuts of influential, iconic software and hardware.

nintendo dS When it appeared in 2004, the DS brought to mind old Game & Watch handhelds. To date, about 154 million have been sold, second only to PS2.

tetriS On June 6, 1984, in Moscow, Alexey Pajitnov finished a game the world is still playing: There have been hundreds of millions of downloads.

FiFAThe first one didnt even have a year: 20 years ago, FIFA International Soccer launched one of the most successful game series ever.

SiM CitY You build and run a city, and then, if you like, monsters destroy it? An idea that, 25 years ago, people said was crazy but has proved one of the most durable.

neS This gray box became a hit in Japan in 1984; America followed a year later and the Nintendo Entertainment System brought video games into the world.

SeGA GeneSiS Its now 25 years since Sega wowed us with what was then a staggering 16-bit console and the worlds fastest blue hedgehog, Sonic.

GAMe BoY It had a weak processor, a simple black-and-white display and no backlight, and yet it was a global hit on launch in 1989. Nintendos greatest-ever product?

PLAYStAtion In 1994, the battle for supremacy between Nintendo and Sega became a three-way. Sony released the first PlayStation and left both in its wake.

. . . F O R M I L L A J O V O V I C H . Every two years, the creatures from Resident Evil make a comeback. Its a welcome sight, because no one hunts zombies as beautifully as Milla. It is no shock to learn that the movies most successful female action hero has been borrowed from a video game what is surprising, as our picture shows, is that shes offing the undead with what looks like an NES Zapper! Her sixth RE flick is planned for release next year.

THAnK YOU, ZOMBIES ...

Undead reckoning: Five resident evil

movies have grossed $916 million

worldwide.

09

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(13)

, TH

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R e a l- w o R l d g a m i n g

miSSing linKSHow an art professor and young hacker dad made Lego compatible with everything.

Interoperability: Thats what its called when things made by different manufacturers work with each other. Once an IT buzzword, it has now found its way into childrens toy

boxes thanks to Golan Levin, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Levin and his colleague, the designer Shawn Sims, have invented the Free Universal Construction Kit (please dont use the acronym), an arsenal of 3D-printer-made connection parts for 10 popular toy construction sets, including Lego. When my son was 4, he tried in vain to put together a car from KNex and Tinkertoy parts. That gave me the idea, Levin explains. He and Sims then needed a name for the project, and it took a whole pitcher of beer to come up with one. They have made the plans for the connection parts freely available. There are print-on-demand services where you can order them, says Levin, but its more fun to play around with a 3D printer yourself, and your child will enjoy it too. thingiverse.com/uck/

g o w i t h t h e f l o w

what ShoUld i PlaY neXt?So many games, so little time. Choose your next one here:

Do you like shooting people?

Y N

d o t a 2 , l e a g U e o f

l e g e n d S

R o l l e R c o a S t e R t Y c o o n 3 , S i m c i t Y 4

P o R t a l 2 , S t a n l e Y P a R a b l e

c o U n t e R - S t R i K e : g o ,

b a t t l e f i e l d

h aV e Y o U e V e R t R i e d l e aV i n g

t h e h o U S e ?

t h e e l d e R S c R o l l S V :

S K Y R i m

S t a R c R a f t 2 , S U P R e m e

c o m m a n d e R

t e a m f o R t R e S S 2

c a l l o f d U t Y

b U l l e V a R d

Y

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f i f a 1 4 , n h l 1 4 ,

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NN

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Are you the center of your world? Do you like to play from a first-person perspective?

Do you like sports, but actual running is a bit too much trouble?

Are you a world-builder who would like to create and rule your own kingdom?Do you like to hit

your opponent with weapons that seem realistic?

Would you get annoyed if someone rampaged through your lovely kingdom?Are you over 18

and capable of losing without insulting your opponents mother?

Are you a strategic thinker and team player who likes to measure up against others?

Do you like to explore enormous game worlds in the hope of discovering new things?

Would you like to give up the rest of your life and spend all night and all day playing games?

10

Co

ur

tesy

F.A

.t. L

Ab

An

d s

y-LA

b

Y o u c a n m a k e t h e m

y o u r s e l f o n a 3 D

p r i n t e r .

IBMs Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997, the first time a computer beat a world chess champion. Now there are mobile-phone apps that would thrash Deep Blue and the greatest grandmasters. Checkmate, humans!

This Asian strategy game has more moves than there are atoms in the universe. A human Go-masters ability to assess territorial advantage at a glance lets him outfox the best computers. In your face, motherboard!

Driven by Kasparovs loss to Deep Blue, Omar Syed devised a strategy game his son could understand but a computer would find hard. After 10 years of human-CPU matchups, soft flesh still beats software.

VS.M A N V S . M A C H I N E :W H O S t H E B E S t ?

L E t t H E B O A R D G A M E S B E G I N !

Fred is GMRs best friend, and eats cake over the keyboard to annoy him.

GMR is Freds best friend, but

never helps Fred with his math

homework.

In 2007, after 18 years of development and cracking checkers mathematically, a team of scientists at the University of Alberta unveiled Chinook, a program that will never lose against a human player.

f R E DG M R

f R E D : 0 | C H E S S | G M R : 1

f R E D : 1 | C H E C k E R S | G M R : 2 f R E D : 2 | A R I M A A | G M R : 2

f R E D : 1 | G O | G M R : 1

B U L L E V A R D

p L AyA G A I N ?

12

tom

mac

kin

ger

B U L L E V A R D

V E R y R E V V y

BikE to thE fUtUREWhen sci-fi and sports collide, theres always that guy who looks like a Daft Punk Power Ranger.

14

Ub

iso

ft/R

edLy

nx

Thrown to the air Trials Fusion is an offshoot

of Trials, the worlds best motocross game series.

Gripping gameplay, futuristic feel, incredible visuals.

Out later this year.

i s i t o u t y e t ?A R e yo u F o R R e A L? W H e N WA s t H At ?H o W D i D i t H A p p e N ? H o W D i D i t H A p p e N ?

p L o t t W i s tW H At s N e x t ? W H At H A p p e N e D N e x t ?WA s t H e R e A s e Q u e L? A N o t H e R o N e ?

tAg L i N et H A N K yo u , 1 9 9 0 s !W H At s t H e p L o t ?WA i t. i s N t t H At H oW D i D i t H A p p e N ?

Cambodia, 1970. A lone U.S. soldier is clearing a minefield. All he has to help him is a cryptic map full of numerical codes.

Game maker Hasbro had already successfully transferred its Transformers to the big screen. So why not Battleship, too?

One of the most successful first-person shooters would surely work on the big screen. But watching it was like watching someone play Doom, badly, and not letting you have a turn.

$ 4 2 m i l l i o n b u d g e t i n 1 9 9 3 s a y s : y e s , v e r y

r e a l i n d e e d .

The first of two films appeared in theaters in 1995 and was in keeping with the spirit of the game. Fans enjoyed the aliens-versus-humans thing and the fight scenes were OK. The 1997 sequel was terrible.

J u s t . O n e .

M o r e . M i n e .

Director Andrzej Bartkowiak found the crux of the gamekilling beasts in helltoo unrealistic. So his idea for the film was to kill monsters on Mars instead.

. . . R i h a n n a ? Y e s , i t i s .

S h e s g o t a g r e a t v o i c e .

Nine different screenwriters and an untried directing duo made one of the biggest cinema flops of the 1990s out of the 1980s favorite video game.

The human race is threatened with extermination by technologically superior aliens. No hope of survival. How do you think it all turns out?

D e n n i s H o p p e r , i n

h i s m o s t a b s u r d

r o l e a s a w i c k e d

b l o n d l i z a r d m a n .

Director: Michael BayScript: Charlie Kaufman The soldier: Nicolas Cage The captain: Tyrese GibsonThe wife: Gemma Arterton The buddy: Peter Stormare

P a u l W . S . A n d e r s o n ,

w h o l a t e r g a v e

u s t h e R e s i d e n t

E v i l s c r e e n

a d a p t a t i o n s .

T h e R o c k .

O t h e r H a s b r o

p r o p e r t i e s o n t h e

b i g s c r e e n : F u r b y ,

M y L i t t l e P o n y ,

P l a y - D o h .

Mario, aka Bob Hoskins, went on to appear in Nixon, Spice World, and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. But tom Hanks was happy: He wanted the part of Mario.

Our heros nerves fail him on the very last mine. Theres a white flash, an explosion, and Nic Cage wakes with a start. His face has aged 40 years. Hed fallen asleep at his desk.

A f a n - m a d e w e b s e r i e s

h a s l e d t o r e b o o t t a l k .

T h e r e w e r e p l a n s f o r

D o o m 2 , t h e y s a y . B u t

t h e r e w e r e a l s o p l a n s

f o r D o o m t o b e

s u c c e s s f u l f i r s t .

P I X E L P I C T U R E S

WHEN GAMES BECOME MOVIESHollywood is fighting to keep its audience because theyre all at home playing

games. Four of these five films really exist; one wed like to shoot ourselves.

B U L L E V A R D

W h a t s w r o n g

w i t h y o u , d r a m a q u e e n ? R I H A N N A I N B A T T L E S H I P

C A s t & C R e WW H At s t H e p L o t ? W H o p L Ay e D B o W s e R ?W H o s t H e s tA R ? W H o WA s D i R e C t i N g ?

B I GS C R E E N

He WAS ABANDONeD By everyONe. BUT UNDereSTiMATiNG A MAN liKe HiM COUlD Be yOUr lAST MiSTAKe

Nicolas cage

16 the red bulletin

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JOIN US AND RUN FOR THOSE WHO CANT

SUNRISE, FL6:00 A.M. ET

SANTA CLARITA, CA3:00 A.M. PT

DENVER, CO4:00 A.M. MT

MAY 4TH

WINGSFORLIFEWORLDRUN.COM

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1 9 9 1

1 9 9 2

1 9 9 3

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Pong First gaming hero is a thin rectangle

Space Invader8x8 pixels: A legend born

1 9 9 5

1 9 7 2

Bomberman Insurgent version of Pac-Man

Donkey KongWorld went ape

for a barrel of fun

Guybrush Threepwood The wit tiest

game star of al l t ime

Link Poor guy. Star of a series named after Princess Zelda

The prince with no nameThough in the

2010 movie, hes Dastan

b u l l e v a r d

Super Mario Here he is: It s-a me!

18

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video gamelegendsThe men, women, and monkeys who made history.

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SteveBack to the

star t: A real hero made

of pixels

Lara CroftIs it OK to have a crush on graphics?

Master Chief Helmeted harbinger of al ien doom

b u l l e v a r d

1 u p & u p & u p

Gordon Freeman The strongest, si lent-est t ype; he never spoke

Chell Absolutely

not your usual in-game babe

Old into gold: Michael Johansson made The Move Overseas, an installation he presented at the last Beaufort04the triennial art expo in the Belgian town of Zeebruggeusing second-hand household appliances and furniture he bought locally.

B U L L E V A R D

B L o c k p A R t y

REAL-LifE tEtRisGet stacked: MichaelJohansson has got to be Swedens tidiest artist.

20

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A quick look at game-gadget history tells us theres a fine line between a white

elephant and a white-hot tech triumph.

Power glove In 1988, what was meant to be the future of controllers turned out to be ham-handed. Only two compatible games were made.

virtuAl Boy Nintendo (see above) promised us a 3D virtual world back in 1995. What we got were red flickering LEDs and headaches.

oCuluS riftThis time its for real: A virtual-reality gaming

headset, financed by Kickstarter. Might we see them, at last, in 2014?

theres a capacity crowd here tonight.

Schoolboy defending.

theyve only come here to park the bus.

A good time to score.

every game is a cup final now.

it was handbags, really.

the manager must have read them the riot act at halftime.

He had no right to score from there.

im not exaggeratingit could be 10-0.

it was easier to score.

im going to make a predictionit could go either way.

Hes given 110 percent.

these two teams know each other inside out.

the first goal is going to make all the difference.

there are no easy games at this level.

what on earth was he thinking?

No love lost between these two.

Surely the referee could see that.

this is a dangerous free-kick.

Stonewall penalty.

And its in the back of the net!

weve seen those given.

time is slowly running out for them.

Absolutely unbelievable.

the referee is looking at his watch.

g e t y o u r g a m e o n

world cup BIngoDont understand soccer? Dont worry, heres a way to keep yourself entertained during the upcoming World

Cup. Listen for these key phrases

B u l l e V a r d

BIngoal!BIngoal!

y o u r e c h e c K I n g m e

o u t , a r e n t y o u ?

d o w n l o a d t h e s e n o w

ANgry BirdS go!your furious feathered friends in

a kart-racing game with the expected, one-more-time pull.

toP eleveNover 12 million wannabe

managers cant be wrong: the best mobile soccer game.

n o

a r e a l I t y ?

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Factor increase in RAM

3 6

5 7

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B U L L E V A R D

1 9 7 2 MAgnAvox odyssey processor: None (40 transistors) ram: None (but later 64 bytes) colors: Black and white most successful game: Table Tennis

1 9 8 3 nintendo enteRtAinMent systeM processor: 8-bit with 1.66 MHz ram: 2 KB colors: 25 onscreenmost successful game: Super Mario Bros.

1 9 8 9 segA genesis processor: 16-bit with 7.61 MHz ram: 72 KB colors: 64 onscreenmost successful game: Sonic the Hedgehog

1 9 9 6 nintendo 64processor: 64-bit with 93.75 MHzram: 4 MB colors: 32,000 onscreenmost successful game: Super Mario 64

2 0 0 0 sony PlAystAtion 2 processor: 64-bit with 294.9 MHz ram: 32 MB colors: 16.7 millionmost successful game: GTA: San Andreas

2 0 0 5 xbox 360 processor: 64-bit TriCore processor, each with 3.2 GHz ram: 512 MB colors: 16.7 millionmost successful game: Kinect Adventures

2 0 1 3sony PlAystAtion 4 processor: Eight 64-bit processors, each with 1.6 GHz ram: 8 GB colors: Over a billionmost successful game so far: Killzone: Shadow Fall

N A , S U p E R !

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T h E N U m B E R g A m E S

powERLifTiNg Each generation of game machines brings new tech: In 40 years weve gone from 64 bytes to 8 billion.

22 the red bulletin

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 influenced

the action sequences in the Captain

America sequel.

Emmy nominations for the first three

seasons

The price to buy a replica

Iron Throne

Pages in the longest GOT book, A Dance

with Dragons

H I G H F I V E

SHoot to tHrIllCaptain America: The Winter Soldier directors Anthony and Joe Russo display fanboy pride in their favorite video games.

B U l l E V A r D

3Dragons under the control of Daenerys Dany Targaryen 5 , 2 2 0 , 0 0 0 10Viewers watchedSeason 3s Red Wedding episode live Major characters killed off so far (and a whole lot of minor ones)4 0 $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 1 , 0 4 0 B Y t H E N U M B E r S : G A M E o F t H r o N E S

Q & A

MICHAEl PEATo play Cesar Chavez, the actor studied his gravitasand guts.

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Michael Pea has made his name as a character actor in award-winning movies like American Hustle, million dollar Baby, and Crash, but he rarely gets to take the lead. That changes with the new biopic Cesar Chavez, the story of the National Farm Workers Association co-founder and civil rights activist.red bulletin: What was your first thought when you realized youd be playing Cesar Chavez?MiCHAel PeA: you cant print it, but i was like, Shit! We can print that.it was actually the F word. i was like, F*ck, how am i gonna do this?How much did you know about Chavez before making the movie?my parents were farmers. They grew up in mexico and came here illegallytheyre now legal. They were all for the American dream, and so i knew about Cesar Chavez. What was the most surprising thing you learned about him?in any drama i always try to put as much humor as i can into the performance. What kind of jokes does this guy tell? it leads me to understand the character better. id heard that [Chavez] was kind of a silly guy, which i thought was interesting.The role was a physical transformation.i gained more than 30 pounds for the role. Chavez didnt look like a very physical man and [the director] diego Luna was like, i want you to look more like a pear, man. i couldnt wear a fat suit because it wouldnt change the face, and [gaining weight] just does something for your bodyeven for the way you think.www.participantmedia.com Cesar Chavez opens March 28.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar We spend hundreds of hours punching the keys on our Apple IIe traversing Brittania, repeating mantras and losing sleep.

Goldeneye 007 Sleek and realistic, it ushered in the first-person shooter. Its split-screen multiplayer mode is the reason we have Call of Duty and Battlefield.

Star WarsBattlefront The game that finally allowed us to live our fantasy of existing in the Star Wars universe. Still our favorite shooter game of all time.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Its brilliant sound design, exceptional graphics and cinematic execution changed the way we looked at action in films.

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Gauntlet 80s dungeon game. Back in the day, there was nothing better than 10 bucks in quarters, three of your best buddies, and an hour of Gauntlet.

the red bulletin 23

t h i n k e rD E E P

The freediver who, on his journey to reach world-record depths, wants to expand his mindand yours.

Words: Frdric Pelatan Photography: Ian Derry

24

The most magical moment is when I escape gravity, says freediver Guillaume

Nry. It is liberation. It is breaking loose.

Our sport is enormously demanding from a physical point of view, but I dont feel that its dangerous. 26

FDR and the art of freediving: My only

fear is fear itself. Once it sets in,

you lose your cool and serenity.

As a child, Nry dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Now he defies gravity in the other direction.

Aesthetics are important in

freediving. What you do has to look good.

29

Guillaume Nry is pushing and dragging a trolley stacked high with luggage down the corridors of Pariss Charles de Gaulle Airport. His young daughter, Ma-Lou, hangs off his back like a little spider monkey. Alongside them is Julie Gautier, girlfriend, mother, filmmakerand Nrys confidante and freediving partner. The Nry clan is fleeing the French winter to spend the next four months in French Polynesia: Only a 25-hour journey separates them from paradise. Things have been going well recently for the family from a sports point of view, with the one-time world-record holder having improved one of his many French freediving records at the World Championships in Kalamata, Greece.

We have to fight hard for every meter. Thats the challenge, the fascination.

30

Search nery base on YouTube to see

Nrys BASE jump dive into the worlds deepest underwater

sinkhole in the Bahamas.

A single breath is all Nry needs to dive to a depth of 410 feet.

The whole community is in shock, Nry says. Our sport is enormously demanding from a physical point of view, but I dont feel its dangerous because we have to stick to all these safety procedures. Or should I say I never used to feel it was dangerous? Of course, now I wonder what to do. Does it make sense to carry on?

Does this mean that one of the worlds best freedivers now fears the deep?

My only fear is fear itself, he says matter-of-factly. Once it sets in, you lose the cool and serenity you need as you fight for every extra meter. In fact, we have to fight so hard for every extra meter that we can never afford to tense up. Thats the challenge, the art, the fascinating thing.

A few years ago, in another part of the Bahamas, Nry himself got into trouble.

I dived down to a depth of 262 feet, doing the breaststroke. When I came back up, I couldnt breathe, my whole body was tense, and I was spitting blood. It was more than five minutes before my breathing returned to normal.

Unlike Austrian freediver Herbert Nitsch, who suffered the consequences of a 2012 accident, or Loc Leferme, who died in training in 2007, Nry has resisted the siren call of the deepest category of freediving, No Limits, in which aids can be used to dive down next to a guide lineusually a weighted sled on the way down and inflatable buoyancy aids on the ascent. The temptation to compete in this discipline has been strong for Nry, but his girlfriend has managed to dissuade him. She was pretty unequivocal about it. She said, Its OK if you want to do it, but you have to know youll be doing it without me. Nry readily agreed with that ultimatum. His focus, in any case, goes beyond setting records. Competing is fascinating, but its only scratching the surface. Aesthetics are the really important thing when it comes to freediving. Aesthetics are affirmation; what you do always has to look good.

For Nry, the attraction to the sport started as a child. When I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut and was constantly looking up at the sky. Then one day I saw a documentary about freediving legend Umberto Pelizzari. That was the first time I was confronted with a completely different world.

Nry and a friend would challenge each other on the school bus: First one to breathe loses. Back in his room after school, Nry would hold his breath for five minutes. He was 14 and hoping to discover far-off galaxies, but he would elude gravity by going down, not up.

Hes now set on sharing that wonder with others. Following the online success of the short film Free Fall, which he and Gautier shot together, the duos latest short, Narcosis, is being shown at European film festivals. Gautier operates the camera, following Nry into the depths. The most magical moment is when I escape gravity. It is liberation. It is breaking loose. I fly with my arms open. At those moments I am completely calm. Everything around me becomes one, and I become part of that whole.guillaumenery.fr

But the 31-year-old Frenchman is broody and uncommunicative, as he has been for several weeks, ever since Nicholas Mevoli, a video producer and experienced freediver from New York, died while taking part in a competition organized by AIDA, freedivings international governing body.

In May 2013, Mevoli had become the first American freediver to pass the 328-foot mark in the Constant Weight categorydiving down alongside a guide line but not touching it, while wearing fins. Four months later, he won the silver medal in the same category at the World Championships. But on November 17, 2013, in the Bahamas, while attempting a 236-foot Constant Weight without Fins dive, Mevoli reached his depth, began to resurface as planned, but then fell unconscious in the water. He was taken to a hospital, where he died of what was later said to be pulmonary edema: capillaries bursting under pressure and filling his lungs with blood.

I am completely calm during a dive. Everything around me becomes one.

33

Whether its in Japanese sculpture, or the smooth lines of a BMX street rider, the Grammy-winning producers unbridled curiosity finds inspiration everywhere. A few items from his current list are featured in the following pages of this, his Red Bulletin editorial takeover.

pharrell

Designer, musician, artist & producer PhARRell WilliAMs is one thing above all: A master collaborator.

34 the red bulletin

predictsthe future

But first, he talks about channeling that curiosity, what the music industry took years to understand, and what he hopes women will feel from his new album.

Words: Andreas Tzortzis Photography: Finlay MacKay

I find the magic in trying to just blend different worlds together and mix it up.

If your voice is like velvet and people are used to hearing you in things that would be conducive to a velvet voice, I would say lets try gravel music.

36

he man in that hat is as cool as youd like; voice above a whisper but not much more, holding forth on the trouble with success, the absurdity of hit-making, on why people dont feel anymore. Forty years on this earth, 23 of them creating the type of music that has soundtracked house parties, breathless and fumbling late nights, slow cruises through the neighborhood, and Pharrell Williams is still, remarkably, nailing it: Two global hits (Get Lucky, Blurred Lines) in 2013, which netted him four Grammys, including his second Producer of the Year award; another party-starter, Happy, showed up on the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and won an Oscar nomination, as well as an award for the innovative 24-hour music video created for it.

But then theres also the hat, and what it reveals about the taste-making gene Williams possesses. Last seen in Malcolm McLaren and the Worlds Famous Supreme Teams Buffalo Gals video in 1982, its a Vivienne Westwood piece that first appeared on the shelves of the shop she and McLaren owned in London. Now tweeted, mocked, and memed the world over, its almost as if Williams planned it. Which hell assure you he didnt, because nothing Williams does follows a plan so much as appears to him at the right moment, ready and willing to be birthed into success. That includes his new album, Girl, his first solo project in eight years, which comes out in May but will likely be firing our collective synapses far beyond that.

the red bulletin: What are you looking for when an artist walks into your studio? pharrell williams: It is three things. It is, one, what they walk in saying they would like to do. It is also their energy that they just are naturally giving off. You know, whether it is a cab ride or it is an argument or something that they have on their mind. And then, third, it is the way that they actually sound and vocal tone. I always try to make sure that there is some interesting juxtaposition. So if your voice is like velvet and people are used to hearing you in things that would be conducive to a velvet voice, I would say lets try gravel music, if that makes any sense. So there is some interesting alchemy there.

And the magic is when you are able to marry those elements together. Like, Man, I didnt know peanut butter and chocolate could go together. Yeah, it is called a Reeses cup. But you would never know unless you try.

So that is where I find the magic, in trying to just

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They look like toy figures. They are the same size and made of the same material. Yet unlike G.I. Joe action figures, designer toys are not to be played with. Theyre to be collected. They are the bridge between pop culture and high culture, between comic fans and art collectors. Designer toys are produced by reputable designers and artists in small, expensive batches, making them highly collectible in a very short space of time. So a 6-foot-tall Mickey Mouse skull-and-crossbones figure by American artist KAWS can fetch prices similar to that for a used car. The Design Exchange museum in Toronto is now giving these colorful plastic miniatures their first large exhibition.

This Is Not a Toy runs through May 19 and shows the origins of this culture dating back to the 1990s, from early urban vinyl works by Hong Kong designer Michael Lau to detailed miniatures by renowned artists such as Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara. For co-curator Pharrell Williams, who loaned a few pieces from his collection, the impact of the work cant be denied. It opened my eyes to other kinds of art. Artists like Murakami, Jeff Koons, KAWS ... even forms like architecture and design. Its like a crazy portal, and the awareness of art and design has led to some of my best collaborations.dx.org

# 1Coarse False Friends 2010

T H I S I S N OT A TOY Design

Since Im forever a student, Im always looking for interesting people, places, and things. Feeding my curiosity is key. I love searching for new things that can

change my perspective on how I see the world. If your brain isnt constantly learning, youre doing yourself a disservice. Im a big believer in pushing yourself to explore new worlds that challenge what you perceive to be true. Take a look at

some of my favorite inspirations right now.

Who doesnt love toys? Whether youre a child or a big kid like me, a great toy

can instantly bring a smile to your face. This museum

exhibit proves why designer toys are a new platform for fine art expression. It speaks

to the kid in all of us.

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blend different worlds together and mix it up. In pairing and trying, there seems to be no fear of failure whatsoever. Mmhmm. Do you fear failure at all? Because looking at your track record, you seem to be very consistent from success to success. What do you mean? The fear that maybe this shit isnt working out. Maybe this track isnt going to hit. Maybe that clothing line isnt going to work. Do you think about it in those terms? Yeah, I dont even understand that. My mind just cant even process that. And it has always been like that? Yeah. When you love something, what are you scared of? I suppose you are scared of negative reaction. Well, if you are thinking about fame and success, yeah. But who Well, if youre on top, I guess the fear would be losing that, right? Losing that touch. Right. But if that is your main concern, being on top, then you probably should find another business. Because our business works off of emotion, and it is

not really easy to quantify it outside of what it is. It is like saying, Well, are you afraid of how the

ball is going to react to the ice hockey rink? No, because that is not what it is meant for. The ball is for that world and the puck is for that world. Emotions are just emotions. So when a song works, you should just be thankful, because that is not why you do it.

So any kind of success that I have ever had on a song is not my doing. So you dont do it for that, because I cant control that. I do it because I feel like it feels good and it may resonate with other people. So it is not really good to mix the idea of what success is and the purity of why you do something.

Unless, define success. Big or huge? That means that after I have done what I did or anybody else that has made their contribution to something, success means the people voted, they requested, they shared it with a friend, they purchased it, they downloaded it. And they did it in large numbers.

That is what success means. I have nothing to do with that. I cant control it. I can only control what I do.

When I was young, yeah, I looked at it differently, because I looked at a lot of people who quantified

If that is your main concern, being on top, then you probably should find another business. Because our business works off of emotion.

the red bulletin 39

Delicate, all-encompassing choral singing begins. Then we have a gentle piano chord, some hissing beats, and an elegantly smoky, instantly captivating voice. Banks takes no prisoners. As soon as you hear the first few bars of her London EP, you know that this 25-year-old artist from Los Angeles is here to stay. Because her songs represent a long overdue link between warm, soulful R&B vocals and ice-cold electronic music. It is minimalistic, glittering, sexy. As if Lana Del Rey had spent a night in the recording studio with James Blake.

Even though Banks only released her debut single a year ago, she can already count names like Pharrell Williams and Katy Perry as fans. Perry declared her love for her last fall over

Twitternot a bad career boost considering Perrys 50 million followers are tops on the social network.

Jillian Banksher full namehas been making music since the age of 15. What started it all off was a friend giving her a toy keyboard, which was supposed to help her get over her parents divorce, an aid to help her process her emotions. And it did. It worked as self-help for a long time,

BA N KSSongstress

something she did just for her. I could let everything out in my songs. Insults, secrets, aggression ... it was incredibly liberating, she recalled to Billboard magazine. And then I was hooked.

She only shared her music with the rest of the world once she had completed her psychology studies, uploading her song Before I Ever Met You to SoundCloud. Zane Lowe, the British radio DJ and influential opinion maker, discovered it there and played it on his BBC Radio 1 show. His advice was, Listen up. Banks is gonna be the next big thing.

A self-fulfilling prophecy. Within months, Banks had a record deal in the bag, lingerie company Victorias Secret had used her song Waiting Game in its new advertising campaign, and in January, she placed among the top 5 in the BBCs Sound of 2014 contest. The poll has been a reliable yardstick for new talent and in recent years has foretold the breakthrough of artists including Frank Ocean, Adele, and Florence and the Machine.

Banks has now somewhat withdrawn from view in London to work on her debut album, which should appear in the course of the year. Working with her in the studio are flavor-of-the-month electronic producers Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Lil Silva, and Shlohmo, the latter working with her at the mixing desk on her latest single, Brain.

She only hears all the fuss about her indirectly. Social networking isnt her thing, she explains. She is happy to leave that to her management team. None of which means that she doesnt care about her fans. She even published her private phone number on Facebook, adding: If you ever want to talk, call me. So have there ever been times when she has regretted being so open?

Not yet. Most people write really nice messages, she told MTV. What I like best are the text messages where people tell me my songs helped them when they were feeling lonely.

For those of you thinking you might want to reach out, go right ahead.

Her number is (323) 362-2658.hernameisbanks.com

B A N K S TA K E S N OP R I S O N E R S . H E R M U S I C

I S M I N I M A L I S T I C ,G L I T T E R I N G , S E X Y.

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Theres another girl, Banks, whos crazy.

So good. She is something

special.

song makes it to the top when it sounds just like everything else. Then yeah, but I like the different stuff anyways.

And you know what? I am not the only one. There are so many people that love different things. That is why I like the concept of a phone, you knowconnectivity is a huge part of it, too. But where the device companies are really smart, they realize people wanted to customize things, because individuality is everything.

Your house smells like what you want it to smell like. It has been customized by you. Can you imagine where you wake up where there are only three furniture layouts for everyones home in the world? Yeah, it is funny; music is kind of like the only place where there are people that believe that delusion, that there is a formula. I guess you can lump Hollywood into that as well. Yeah, but there are festivals that celebrate indie filmmaking that dont celebrate indie music, not with the type of visibility that they do in the film world. And film also has the advantage of playing with two senses, whereas music is just auditory. That is why the business of music has had such a slump, because they always thought it was in the song first.

But you know, as the paradigm is shifting, everybody is starting to realize that kids want a visual. That is why YouTube gets more audience than any radio station collectively. But you always thought visually. Yeah, but most musicians are the same way. I am no different. Hence the term the blues. You interviewed Spike Lee and talked about the importance of using Fight the Power as the main anthem in Do the Right Thing. How can songs contribute to the feeling that you get from film? Well, film gives you two different senses. It is curated. With music, some of it is left to your imagination, what you want to picture in your mind. With a film there is a curated direction by the point of view of the director and the music that is under it. So those two are working in concert to sort of take you to a place that the director has intended.

So film sort of has the jump on it, but I think the music industry is catching up, because all of the indie artists are just like, I dont want to leave it up to your interpretation of what I am feeling when I make this song. I would like to show you. So you are watching all of the indie kids make the best music, because they are thinking about music 3D, the way it has always been intended. Is there an album or artist that you think is doing it particularly well? Well, you know what? Even on a big popular level there are some artists that have figured it out. Look at Beyonc. Her visuals were so strong that the only marketing she did was either tweeted or she put something on Instagram.

I am not exactly sure of the method that she chose, but she just dropped the whole thing. She just put out a bunch of videos and her songs and was like, Here. It is my art. No gimmicks, no

their happiness by how successful they were. And nobody wants to work really hard and not get recognized for it.

You want to be appreciated for your work. But that is a fine line in appreciating your work and it doing super well and you getting hooked on that. If you get hooked on success, you are screwed. How did you manage to avoid that? Well, I have been doing it for a long time, and I realized the thing that always gives back to me is my curiosity for how I can find new chord progressions, new sounds. That is how I am rewarded, because I cant control anything else.

So when something is successful, that is what you guys always see me saying thank you for all of the time, or I put my hands together, because I want you to know that I know where it comes from, and point up.

You know, we are vessels. We are straws. We are not the juice. And anyone that believes that, those are the people that end up, you know, losing their minds later on in life or not happy.

I dont have to be the juice. I dont have to be the glass. I dont have to be the coldest part of the whole entire thing, which is the ice. You could be that. I am just happy to be a part of it. You are the facilitator? I am a part of it. I am a participant. The minute that you claim you are a facilitator, well then you are the all-powering. And are you? If everybody that made a song gained that kind of power, then I mean, what would this world look like?

That is why everything is fair, right? We all play a part in it. It is like an ant farm or a beehive. Everyone has their job. My job is to just listen and sort of try to channel it through, but it is coming from somewhere else, hence the term channel. So I am thankful when songs become what they do, because it is not my doing. There are some producers out there who think its possible to manufacture hits; that a chord progression, that a certain hook sung by someone, will guarantee success. Sure. You dont subscribe to that at all? Well, not unless you want to get in the rat race and compete with everybody else and hope that your

I dont have to be the juice. I dont have to be the glass. I dont have to be the coldest part of the whole entire thing, which is the ice. You could be that. I am just happy to be a part of it.

the red bulletin 41

campaign. And it has really honestly caused the record industry to sort of take noticewell, the smart onesbecause there are still cocky ones that are like, Oh, well that is Beyonc. But those are the old guys. The ageless ones are the ones who are just thinking forward and they realize that he who occupies the majority of your senses with something that is irrefutable wins. Did you struggle with the structure of the record industry when you started?I was a child. I had no idea what was going on. All I knew is what drove me then is what continues to drive me now: music that I am like, Whoa, that feels amazing. I just love the feeling of great chord structures and great melody and lyrics that just touch you, you know? Youve got a new album now, the first solo one in quite some time. Why was it time to do it now?I didnt know it was time. I never know anything. That is part of just being open. When things are too predetermined, I have never really had success with that. It is going to be this, this, this, this and this. That is all ego. And that is all you sort of rely on, because your ego is basically you have your experiences and then you have your memories of your experiences. And the way in which your mind, as a librarian, goes back to refer to this information is where your ego, where you can sort of measure or quantify what your ego is. Well, I know such and such and such and such, so therefore

Have you ever heard that phrase, God laughs at our plans? And that is why. Because when you think you know, you can be blindsided by something that is completely left of center and just change your whole shit.

I have learnedI am 40 nowso I have learned to not do that. I have learned to just be open and just experience things. And when something strikes me, go get acclimated with it instantly, because I may not hear it again. Because what are the odds? There are 7 billion people on the planet. And just because that is a lot of people doesnt mean that the odds are in my favor.

So there is no such thing as knowing. You just have to be open. So I try so hard. You know, I really work at just sort of trying to be egoless so that I can be open and not miss important morsels of music and points of view, new ways of making music.

If I go in there so predetermined, then I am I have learned to just be open and just experience

Everybody is starting to realize that kids want a visual. That is why YouTube gets more audience than any radio station collectively.

42 the red bulletin

things. And when something strikes me, go get acclimated with it instantly, because I may not hear it again.

This Los Angeles duo consistently works to bring disparate elements of the art worlds togethergraffiti and graphic designthrough both massive motifs and fine detail. Its a simple concept, but David Rabi Torres and Davey Leavitt have been applying it in impressive fashion for four years now. Like the time the two of them painted the front of a house in delicate woodcut style, or when they recount American colonial history using outsized, detailed, pop-art prints, or when they cut up their own artwork and then put it back together in a jigsaw-like honeycomb. When it comes to creating their melded works of art, the only rule for Torres and Leavitt is that there are no rules.

The ReD buLLeTIn: Youve been working together since 2010; how did that come about? ToRRes: When I met Davey, he opened my world to the design and the elements of type and really clean sophisticated design. I was just running around in L.A. trying to paint walls, do graffiti and shit like that. We shared similar values and a conceptual

CY R C L E Artistsmaterials can help communicate that? l: Its exciting every time we get a reason to buy a new tool. Thats an exciting moment in the studio. It started with the shittiest brand you can buy at the local hardware store. And then you get a DeWalt and everything changes as far as how precise you can get with your angles and cuts. Currently were saving up to get a laser machine. Thats going to be our new tool that were excited to have, for sure. Just doing it all ourselves, were going on Youtube figuring out how to do it.

Your motto is We never Die. The initials in Pharrells band n.e.R.D. stand for no one ever Really Dies. Is that just a coincidence? T: It is, totally.L: But I mean, its not in a sense that if thats his mantra, thats the type of person he is. Its similar to the type of people we are. We can relate to his style. He could be just a hip-hop artist or he could be just a producer. But he does everything and hes open to change. Just like us.cyrcle.com

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dream of what we wanted to do with our work. I didnt just want to do graffiti and he didnt just want to do design. You paint walls, make short films, and build skull sculptures out of flowersis there a through line in Cyrcles work? LeAvITT: Personally I never wanted to be stuck in a style because thats not my style of living. Im a really manic bipolar person, because Im changing all the time. I love change. In order to grow we have to find new tools and then we have to learn how to use them.t: The process for anything we create starts with an idea and a concept and a message. And then we figure out how to visually communicate that message. And thats where the work will continue to change. Because its not inspired by a style, its inspired by an idea. Thats what frees us to do so much different stuff. What do we want the sculpture to communicate? What

If art doesnt have purpose, whats the point? This is

something Cyrcle understands very well. Theyre committed to

creating poetic visuals that grab your attention. Cyrcle

takes street art to a new level of creativity that elevates the

style to new heights.

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completely blocking everything that could have been the best thing that ever happened to me. So when I had the awesome opportunity to work on the first Despicable Me, I had to listen. As much as I felt like, Oh, you know, I can make songs and whatever. No man, they had a direction. They knew what they wanted. And in that process, I learned more about reaching more people or just opening songs up. OK cool, so you think the music is there. You think the lyrics are there. Cool. Is it as accessible as it could be? Was that line sung as good as it could be, so that it is clear and the diction is clear?

In other words, is it legible to peoples interpretation. It might not be, because your ego told you that you killed it. But if you would remove your ego and only use your feeling, that is when the best stuff comes out. Is that a difficult lesson to learn for you? It was a great lesson to work, because that is how Happy came. Because I swore out that I had it nine times in a row, nine different songs for that one little scene. Nine? Yeah. And it was only until I was completely out of ideasno more ego, right? Because what I knew about Despicable Me the first time is that [the main character, Gru] is mean and duh, duh, duh, so therefore and it was a mistake.

So it took nine times to sort of get it through my head that I needed to be open and realize, OK, yeah. Gru was a mad guy in the first one. He is happy now. So how do you write a song about somebody being happy and just having a relentless mood about it? And then the song came. But you had the basics of it? I didnt have anything. That is what I am trying to tell you. The basics are where the ego comes in. Remember, you have to be open. But surely you have to start with something. Zero. But that is crazy, because youve built a career out of knowing it and of having it. No, I built a career of loving music and sometimes becoming intoxicated by things working out and sort

of thinking it was me. And it wasnt me. A hit song is not your doing. The song is your doing. The hit is made by the people. You cant lose sight of that. What purpose does the new album serve for you?I was just given the opportunity and, you know, when asked what I wanted to make it about, I went with the feeling. So I did decide with my eyes closed. But what does that mean? Did you just ask your own follow-up question? Yeah. That was a rhetorical question. What does that mean? That means not, Oh, I am so good. I can do it with my eyes closed. When someone says that they are doing it with their eyes closed, what they are ultimately saying, what that really is supposed to mean, is that you didnt think about it and that it was second nature because you were going off of feeling.

I went off of feeling. I didnt look around peripherally to see what this person was doing and what that person was doing. I went inward so that I could go upward. So I made it with my eyes closed, which means the litmus test was when you close your eyes, does it work for you there? That means no outside influences. So I made all of the music just based off of feeling, not thinking. Because every time I have ever thought too much in my whole entire life, I have f*cked it up. So you think, What does euphoria sound like? What does sadness sound like? What does giddiness sound like? I mean, you are ascribing sounds to emotion. Yes, but that is what all musicians do. That is not singular to me. We just all do things our way. And your way is who you are. The way of doing things is what makes you who you are.

In other words, we all speak English, but somehow you use the words differently than I do and you use it in your way. Your way is your fingerprint of who you are as a person. A lot of us make music the same way. It is just your way is more specific to who you are as a person. Do you know what I am saying? I do. I also think it is interesting how you have never been afraid to indulge interests, directions. What do you have to lose? Failure? If you are concerned about failure, then you cant make no good music. Why is the new album called Girl? Well, there is major purpose in there. But let me switch gears on you. Let me tell you my intentions aside from the content is the feeling, so that we have a through line between how I make music. So at

A hit song is not your doing. The song is your doing. The hit is made by the people. You cant lose sight of that.

the red bulletin 45

Down Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, weaving in and out of traffic and hopping the planters on his BMX bike, Nigel Sylvester wasnt earning much street cred.

People called me a white boy and made fun of me, he says. They didnt understand the culture. With the typical path to BMX stardom unavailable to him, Sylvester seized upon the power of YouTube. He made videos showcasing his freakish ability on a BMX bike as he carved up New York. Sponsors followed, including bike-makers Brooklyn Machine Works, who, last year, reached out to Sylvester via one of their investors: Pharrell Williams.

THe reD BulleTiN: What does Pharrells involvement mean to your scene? SYlveSTer: It started with skateboarding. Seeing someone like him embrace that, it automatically made it cool and acceptable. Kids in the hood start to ride skateboards, and youd never ever seen that before. Hes just that influential in culture.Why? Hes a producer and music drives culture so much. I hope the same happens for BMX culture. Ive been a fan of Pharrells for a minute. And hes been embracing BMX culture for a long time

n i g e lsy lv est e rBMX rider

What kept you in it?I liked the freedom, dude. It was the best way to express myself. As a child, I was into art and music and played basketball and football, but there was something about the bike that I was really into. It was a feeling I had at that early age and I practiced at it and I was good at it. I saw results. And I saw dudes like [BMX pro] Dave Mirra, who took it to such a height, and I was like, If he can do it, then its possible. But coming from where I came from, I had to put my own perspective on it, my own life story, and my neighborhood and background into it and it came out differently. I took a whole different route.Which was The traditional way is that you work hard to get sponsored and you ride contests, and the more you win the bigger star you are. For me growing up, I didnt have access to contests, and I didnt have access to the skateparks that these contests were based on. So I had to figure out another way to get myself out there. Luckily enough, street riding was becoming very popular,

* i n s p i r a t i o n / i n f o r m a t i on

# 4now. He rode bikes in the Provider video [by N.E.R.D. in 2001] and I remember seeing that when I was super young and thats another reason I stuck with BMX, because I saw someone like him doing it as well. On that level, that made it more cool for me. I saw someone who looked like me doing it.Why was that important? Actual BMX culture wasnt popular at all. People called me a white boy and made fun of me because they didnt understand the culture. So I definitely had like those naysayers and haters, but I stuck with it and was able to make a career out of it.

where you rode rails and used what was provided to you. I was using my neighborhood to ride and express myself. It was like NYC was the canvas and I painted my picture on whatever it offered me. I was able to mix riding with the lifestyle I was livinginto music, into art, into fashionand I put that into my riding. Whenever I put a video out I made sure to include that, and I was able to attract a different type of people and get eyes on what I was doing. And big companies saw that and they were like, Wow, this kid is different. I didnt ride the X Games. I used the Internet and word of mouth.What do you hope your collaboration with Pharrell results in?I want to give kids an opportunity to aspire to be part of that brand and just do good by the industry. Im hoping that teaming up with someone like Pharrell, we can get it out to the masses and show the world what this BMX culture is about. People have this one image of it. Theres one type of person you think that rides BMX bicycles, but its not true.nigelsylvester.com

I w a s u s I n g t h e n e I g h b o r h o o d t o

e x p r e s s m y s e l f. I t s l I k e n y C w a s t h e

C a n va s .

Anyone can ride a bicycle, but how many people

truly create art with it? When Nigel Sylvester leaps into the air with his BMX

bike, its beyond just entertainment. He

approaches his craft like a mad scientist who pushes the limits of

whats humanly possible. No means go for him.

An

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eAs

Tzo

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is

and just try to make something that would be real stimulative. To resonate with women? Oh yeah, totally. Totally. Women have been so good to me and my career. What do you need to understand about women to write songs for them? Well, I think most of the time we hear songs that are written at women versus for. You know, it is like most products. It is not really for them, it is just marketed at their insecurities. It doesnt really fit her hand like that though, does it? It is not really the smell she truly prefers, it is just what your old, antiquated corporate statistics tell you.

But where are you doing these consensuses and with what types of women? My thing is lets start doing things with them truly in mindtruly in mind. That is not writing something at her. That is writing something intended for her.

And the only way to do that, the only way to really sort of figure out if that works or not is based off of feeling. That is what she is going to tell you, what she feels. Are you trying to demystify that otherness in women? Is it kind of about trying to understand it or cater to it? I just want to make music that ladies, the girls, listen to and they feel an escapism. That is my intention. Sometimes I think that success comes from being very calculated and being very smart and not getting too involved. Yes, Steve Jobs. He so geniusly brought that product to the world; it is called a computer. But we are human, and that is what a computer will never be able to do is feel. That is what still makes us the superior species on this planet. So you are a curator of feeling? At this moment. Has it been different earlier in your career? Yeah, because, like I said, when I realized that thinking is not my path and feeling is for me, I started to realize that people are so dismissive about other peoples feelings.

I have always felt music since I was a little child. But I realized that it was the key probably in the last 10 years. Because before that I just wasnt thinking. It was like private flights, Ferraris, jewelry, all of those things that mean nothing. Ferraris get old. They depreciate as soon as you drive it off of the lot. The same as a Honda Accord. You have got to trade it in in two years, because in four you have lost a lot of money. And I appreciate the car, I do. I still do. But that is not what it is about. You cant take that when you go. You take your feelings with you and your experiences that gave you those feelings. And also what you gave others. That is the wealth, man. An experience. The coolest thing that you talk about is your trip where you went and you had a good time. The first thing that you talk about it in terms of your description, Man, it was awesome.

the genesis I knew that the criteria was festive, celebratory, and I wanted everything to feel urgent. So I worked really hard. Urgent is an interesting word to use. Urgent just means like, Man, what is that? Stop and listen. Shooting, always shooting for unique and undeniable. Always shooting for that and using the feeling as a compass. We are so dismissive of our feelings. Yet most of the time when you hear about them in songs, unless it is a real good singer/songwriter, it is always generic. But your feeling is like one of the your feeling connects to your spirit that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have feelings. Our feelings can lead us to do really crazy things or really amazing things.

You can tell when someone is standing behind you, even if they are not making a sound. You can feel it. You can walk into a room and you can tell when someone doesnt like you. You can walk in a room and you can tell when there is something going on between those two.

It is a feeling. But we are always so dismissive of it. So with this album I intended to capitalize on that

Our feelings can lead us to do really crazy things or really amazing things.

For more on Pharrell and his passion for BMX culture, check out The Red Bulletin Presents on YouTube.

the red bulletin 47

48

w o r d s : J A Z Z K U s C H K E p H o t o g r A p H y : K E l v i n t r A U t m A n

The Red Bulletin meets Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel

as they attempt to set a fastest known time for South Africas

Drakensberg Grand Traverse. Its a 130-mile journey

on foot, with no support and very little sleep.

to tAmE

A drAgon

he Drakensberg is Southern Africas highest and most iconic mountain range, and its towering basalt peaks, rock-art-adorned caves and remote valleys have commanded reverence throughout history. Opinions differ over whether the South African pioneers dubbed them Dragon Mountains because they believed dragons to live in the misty valleys, or because the ranges spiky profile resembles that of the mythical beasts back. Perhaps a clue lies in the more traditional name uKhahlamba, which means Barrier of Spears in Zulu. What is certain is that while the lower slopes and streams can be safely explored by fun-loving eco-tourists, the higher reaches are best left to well-equipped, expert mountaineers.

Among this high-altitude club, an obscure challenge has developed over the years: To travel on foot, carrying all your own gear and without receiving any form of support, from the north to the south. It has become known as the Drakensberg Grand Traverse and is the mother of all hikes. Its a trek that usually takes an experienced hiker some six to 10 days to complete. Trail runners Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel are planning to make the journey in less than two.

From the acknowledged start at the Sentinel parking lot near Witsieshoek, the

T pair will have to navigate more than 130 miles of rugged alpine mountains to the finish at Bushmans Nek. Along the way, they must summit six of the most prominent peaks south of Kilimanjaro (for an altitude gain of over 29,527 feet) and will seldom drop below 9,842 feet above sea level. Imagine running from Philadelphia to

about Baltimore and back, non-stop, while holding your hand over your mouth and nose, and climbing the equivalent height of Mount Everest. Sandes, whose legs have carried him to high-profile ultra-trail-race wins on every continent in the world, has no illusions about what lies ahead.

Mentally, this is the toughest thing Ive ever attempted, says the Cape Town native. This from the runner who set a speed record through Namibias Fish River Canyon in 2012. (Six hours and 57 minutes for what is normally a five-day hike.) The Traverse is just so long and so far and so slow. Most of the terrain is really not runable eitheryoure on the edge of steep cliffs with no options around the side. On average, youre probably doing about 3 mph. Mentally, that just smashes you. You might think, OK, cool, Ive only got 12 miles to go If I was trail running, I could do that in an hour and a half to two hours, but up there, its about four.

Sandes plans to overcome the challenge like he does ultra-distance races: By breaking the hike down into smaller goals, taking it one peak at a time.

The first peak comes after about 5 miles, Sandes explains, but the second

TEN HOURS TO THE NEXT PEAK: Massive distances and hostile terrain will make for slow going during Ryan Sandes (above and right) and Ryno Griesels attempt.

50

Mentally, this is the toughest thing Ive ever attempted.

is about 31 miles further on. So, 10 hours to the next peak and all the terrain looks the sameits beautiful, but its monotonous.

The sheer magnitude of the task has left the prolific race winner with a philosophical approach. Ive learned that ego isnt going to get us very far, he says.

he Berg is bloody awesomely big, says David Bristow, author of Best Walks in the Drakensberg, and a Traverse veteran. If you look at the Berg side-on, it has a helluva

rugged profile. Each one of those high points represents a ridge and every dip a ravine, so what youre doing is just climbing ridges and ravines. All day long. The terrain is also incredibly rugged. There are these huge alpine grass tussocks, which will definitely pose a problem for running. You could easily twist your ankle on that, easily break a limb.

Not the kind of challenge, then, that you just pencil into your diary, lace up your trail shoes, and go tick off. I didnt want it just to be Ryno taking me on a glorified guided running tour of the Drakensberg, Sandes says. When Sandes

and Griesel run through the gate at Sentinel car park in March, they will have done four comprehensive reconnaissance trips, and close on two years worth of planning.

For Sandes, the strength needed for the power hiking and slowish scrambling fits his training program perfectly. For Griesel, it is the biggest goal of his year and hes been putting in big road mileage in Johannesburg.

Over the years, the record attempts have evolved from traditional hiking to speed hiking [going faster and lighter], and then it moved into adventure racing, explains Griesel, who, along with Cobus van Zyl, set the existing record of 60 hours, 29 minutes and 30 seconds, in April 2010. This is the first time, as far as

TSentinel Car Park

leSotho

South afriCa

Mont-aux-SourCeS

Cleft Peak

ChaMPagne CaStle

Mafadi

giantS CaStle

thabana ntlenyana

buShManS nek

More haSte, leSS SPeed:

Without the correct planning,

equipment and nutrition, Sandes

and griesel will struggle.

ukhahlaMba drakenSberg

Park

52

we know, that the Traverse is being approached with a running mentality.

Griesel has an adventure-racing background and is in charge of navigation, logistics, and keeping the attempt within the rules and mountain ethics of the Traverse. Aside from navigational skills and mountain-running prowess, he believes what will set their attempt apart is less sleep and lighter loads. Were taking small, 3-gallon packs with no tents or sleeping bags, so we dont actually have the facilities to sleep, Griesel half-jokes.

For an adventure racer, 45 hours without sleep is not out of the question, but Sandes will need to close his eyes at some point. When youre exhausted on a normal trail, you can kind of switch off. But with the Traverse being so technical, you have to be alert all the time, he says.

Sandes is planning two or three power naps of 20 to 30 minutes each, and hes hoping to push it to at least 18 hours before he needs the first one. If its raining and cold, we wont be able to stop, which is why were not cutting corners, he says, having realized the need for proper waterproof gear after being caught in severe weather in October 2013. Were going as light as possible, but at the same time if you run into trouble, you have to be able to get yourself out.

heyre going in March when the weather should be good, says Bristow. Its the best time, but its still susceptible to heavy cloud along the escarpment edge. You

can get horribly lost. Fall off the edge The runners will be carrying GPS

devices, waterproof maps and enough food to last them for 60 hours, as well as a Yellowbrick tracker that has a panic button should things get critical. A film crew shooting documentary footage from a helicopter will act as emergency back-up, but at no point during the attempt will they have any communication with the runners, and they are only allowed to assist if a rescue is required.

If the March mist does persist, its likely GPS wont work and the helicopter wont be able to reach the runners anyway. If something goes wrong, you can be pretty much stuck up there for a week if the weather closes in, admits Sandes.

But thats just the type of challenge he relishes, and hes well aware that no ones going to be taming any dragon. Its more about spending some time tracing its back, on its own terms, and hopefully rewriting the record books in the process.ryansandes.com

The Drakensberg granD Traverse runs from norTh To souTh, sTarTing aT The senTinel parking loT perimeTer fence anD enDing aT The bushmans nek borDer posT perimeTer fence.

Way poinTs incluDe:

The chain ladders mont-aux-sources summit (10,767 ft.) cleft peak summit (10,751 ft.) champagne castle summit (11,079 ft.) mafadi summit (11,322 ft.) giants castle summit (10,872 ft.) Thabana ntlenyana summit (11,423 ft.: The highest peak in southern africa) Thomathu pass must be used to descend to bushmans nekprevious Traverse recorDsapril 2010 60 hrs., 29 mins., 30 sec. ryno griesel and cobus van ZylDecember 2009 61 hrs., 24 mins., 11 sec. andrew porter December 2008 81 hrs., 52 mins., 52 sec. stijn laenen and andrew hagen 1999-2008 approximately 15 documented unsuccessful attempts feb 1999 105 hrs., 39 mins. gavin and laurie raubenheimer

D R AG O N S R U N

T

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thun derday of

Racing into the night by the light of the Ferris wheel: The hours before midnight are the best.

w o r d s : w e r n e r J e s s n e r p h o t o g r a p h y : J u l i e g l a s s b e r g , M a r c e l o M a r a g n i

Cr

edit

: thun der Cultish fans, deadl y maneu vers, and last-minute gasps at the Rolex 24 at Day tona. 55

grandstands tremble as the field goes into the first lap.

56 the red bulletin

Linda Vaughn is missing from the start. In years gone by, the garages and boys bedrooms of America were graced with the buxom, formidable vision of Miss Hurst Golden Shifter. For almost half a century, the blonde was a fixture at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the full-day race at the legendary racetrack that traditionally kicks off each international motorsports season. This year she has decided not to attend.

But pretty much everyone else is here. Former Formula One drivers, sports-car greats, gentleman drivers, and showbiz stars form a colorful contingent in Daytona Beach, Florida, all contending with the action on the super speedways oval for a day and a night. After the start-finish straight, the racers turn toward the infield, to the east and west horseshoes, clocking in at over 185 mph.

Until his 70th birthday, you could usually see Paul Newman at the start; two Andrettis have won here, as have Al

The Daytona International Speedway bills itself as

The World Center of Racing.

Unser Sr. and Jr., Hurley Haywood, and Chris Amon. The career of Infiniti Red Bull Racing technical genius Adrian Newey really took off here in 1983, when the young designer turned a March Engineering car from a design write-off into a surprise frontrunner almost overnight. Only engine problems in the 23rd hour prevented Neweys drivers from waking up the day after with a new watch on the bedside table. Winners of what began as the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1962 are awarded a Rolex Daytona watch; the prize-givers splurged for naming rights in 1991.

For all this history, 2014 represents the start of a new era in U.S. long-distance racing. The countrys two rival racing series, GrandAm and American Le Mans, have come together and agreed on joint rules. This years Rolex 24 was the first race of the new United Sportscar Series, and 68 cars divided into four classes revved their engines at the start.

The top tier, Prototypes, is a walkover for the representatives of the erstwhile GrandAm against the open sports cars of the American Le Mans series. The Daytona prototypes share the lead among themselves. They may say that constancy trumps sheer speed in long-distance races, but here its full speed ahead from the first lap, says three- time Daytona winner Memo Rojas. Twenty-four-hour races have become long-range sprints.

The Daytona International Speedway is huge. The tens of thousands of spectators

Mechanics endure short bursts of frantic activity between waits that seem to stretch longer and longer.

57

The northern infield campsite is home to the younger, louder fans. Theyre a good match for the cars that thunder past at 185 mph.

FireFighters take stock oF the campFire situation, just to be sure.

here on the last Saturday in January are simply lost in grandstands that can seat 168,000 and tremble as the field goes into the first lap. The differences in performance are so great that the first lapping comes less than 15 minutes into the racethe circuit is a 2.5-mile ovaland thats after the worst of the jalopies, the homemade family projects with a lot of heart but little else, are stricken from the field at registration. Because things are dangerous enough without them.

At 4:58 in the afternoon, after a driving time of 2 hours and 47 minutes,

leader Memo Gidley laps one carand smacks straight into another, the No. 62 Ferrari driven by Matteo Malucelli. The impact of Gidleys Corvette DP into the back of the Ferrari is so powerful that everyone fears the worst.

At this point, the cars are driving into the setting sun and for a moment you cant see anything at all says one driver. The race is stopped and Gidley has to be cut out of the wreck of his car. The race has long since resumed when news finally comes that the two drivers are responsive. (Gidley would go on to spend 12 days in

the hospital and endure surgery on his broken left heel, elbow, and leg, and a compression fracture in his back. Malucelli was kept overnight for observation.)

Accidents are inseparable from the Daytona experience, as much a part of the legend of this race as who takes up singing duties of The Star Spangled Banner at the start of the race or the Catholic Mass Celebration in the media center on Sunday morning. The camping area in the infield is divided into three areas: partying north, rich east, and family-friendly south.

Tires, fuel, wipe the windshielddone. Thats the pit stop in an ideal world, but its rarely that easy.

the red bulletin 59

In the north, between turns three and four, are the frat boys, the party animals. They brought beer and small tents in pick-ups, SUVs, and other vehicles with a whiff of the farm about them. They also came with plenty of wood for the campfires, which tend to blaze a little brighter around here. Firefighters regularly take stock of the situation, just to be sure. Its not even midday before the tent ropes claim their first stumbling victims, who bawl their disapproval. The unmistakable sound of couples coupling issues from a few tents.

Things are very different in the south, the home of RVs and those who appreciate the finer things in life. These

In three of the four classes, places are decIded In the last 15 mInutes.

60

vehicles have a bedroom, a kitchen, and a closet, and a dead animal is sacrificed to a gas barbecue rather than open flames. Here, the cuts of meat and the paunches of those grilling them tend to be larger than in the north. These are experienced campers. Most of them have flatscreens elegantly worked into the bodywork of their mobil