The Red Bulletin_1201_USA

Aksel Lund Svindal / The Phantom Band / Steven Spielberg / Mobb Deep / Katherine Reutter / Jordy Smith

A BEYOND THE ORDINARY MAGAZINE

JANUARY 2012

SEAN PENN

The actor and his dark places

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L I N D S E Y VO N N

PLAYS THE FAME GAME 01 January 12

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?UESTLOVE TEEN SAILORS SURF GEAR

Bullhorn

sadomasochists As a magazine dedicated to documenting the athletes, personalities, and events that go beyond the ordinary, we often ask our photographers and writers to do the same in delivering it. This can mean riding piggyback as a motocross rider pops a backflip on his bike, actually taking part in the toughest bike race down a mountain in Europe, or hanging out with a Brazilian female bigwave surf star on the beach in Rio (okay, fine—we won’t count that last one, then). For this issue, writer Nicolas Stecher and photographer Chris Baldwin spent more than 12 hours bobbing up and down in the Catalina Channel in the dark of the Stephen Redmond on photographer early morning documenting Chris Baldwin, page 68.

Irishman Stephen Redmond’s masochistic attempt to swim across it (page 68). Nicolas managed (barely) to suppress his seasickness. Chris did him Remember this guy? Rajon Rondo, our one better and jumped into the channel in full November cover star, drops by a Boston Barnes & Noble to sign a few copies of The Red Bulletin. scuba gear to get the type of photographs Okay, more than 100 copies of the Red Bulletin. that convey better than anything else how maddening, unforgiving, and exhausting Redmond’s feat truly was.

Our Lindsey Vonn cover shoot? Um, not quite the same. A small army, including deputy editor Ann Donahue and art director Miles English, descended on a San Diego studio for a four-hour session with America’s sweetheart (page 44). Done just before Vonn headed off to Europe for the beginning of the Photographer Chris Baldwin alternated between a cold boat and the colder water in getting the World Cup season (she’s had a good start), pics to illustrate “The Long Way Home,” our it gave the gold-medal winner time to slip story on Irish swimmer Stephen Redmond. into something more comfortable and ponder her somewhat surprising non-Olympic celebrity.

A final word on some hip-hop throwbacks: At a time when the genre is struggling for a sound beyond sloppy Download our lyrical braggadoccio over Eurotrash club beats, it’s free iPad App Now! refreshing to know legends like Mobb Deep (page 92) EXCLUSIVE THIS MONTH: and ?uestlove (page 64) are still in the game, releasing Lindsey Vonn stylin’ behind new tracks and spreading the good word. the scenes at our cover shoot COVER phOTOgRAphy: EMily ShUR. SilVER jACkET FROM jET SET; gOgglES FROM A FRAME By OAklEy. phOTOgRAphy: RED BUll USA, ChRiS BAlDWiN

“I thought he was a spaceman!”

Your editorial team

?uestlove on stage in Paris with African musical all-stars X-Fighters: big airs and big bails in amazing locations

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the n ew ! p p a ti e l l u b red

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THE WORLD OF RED BULL

CONTENTS

IN JANUARY

30 44 88

58 68 64 50 PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHIE HOPSON, JOE TRELEVEN, ANTHONY BARBOZA, CHRIS BALDWIN, KOLESKY/NIKON/LEXAR, GETTY IMAGES, JOERG MITTER/RED BULL X-FIGHTERS, GIAN PAUL LOZZA

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BODY+ MIND MORE

Bullevard

Action

14. HERE IS THE NEWS

30. THE X-MEN The wildest show on two wheels: the Red Bull X-Fighters world tour in review

17. ME AND MY BODY 18. KATHERINE REUTTER The short-track skate sensation 20. GEAR EVOLUTION Skis, then and now 22. STEVEN SPIELBERG From “The Last Gun” to “War Horse” 23. VOODOO FEST Droppin’ beats on The Red Bulletin stage 24. WINNING FORMULA How to get that Rafael Nadal topspin 26. LUCKY NUMBERS Nobel Prize

Every month 06. KAINRATH’S CALENDAR 08. PICTURES OF THE MONTH 98. MIND’S EYE

40. SEAN PENN Equal parts caustic and charming, the Oscar winner on his dark places 44. LINDSEY VONN The belle of the slopes takes Hollywood 50. THE DAREDEVILS Levi LaVallee and Robbie Maddison control their fears to take flight 58. JESSICA WATSON A teen in the world’s scariest race 64. ?UESTIONS TO ?UESTLOVE The Roots bandleader is in a happy place 68. STEPHEN REDMOND The pain and triumph of an open-water adventurer 74. WHEELS OF CHANGE A Chicago bike charity transforms Zambia

86. TRAVEL: ZILLERTAL A snow-seeker’s paradise awaits in an Austrian valley 88. GET THE GEAR Pro surfer Jordy Smith has what it takes to tame Big Surf 90. PRO TIPS A cross-country skier’s special brand of workout torture 91. CRAZY COOKING A tasty Danish holiday roast 92. OUT NOW Mobb Deep on Queensbridge living and their new EP 93. TAKE 5 The Phantom Band reveal their spectral inspirations 94. THE LIST Our guide to global essentials 96. SAVE THE DATE Out and about this month?

Ink these in your diary 05

illustration: dietmar kainrath

K a i n r at h

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G r i m s e l , sw it z e r l an d

CABLE GUY

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CrEDIts

photography: raINEr EDEr/MaMMut

Nope, this isn’t a pirated scene from new Bond flick “Skyfall”— this is 39-year-old Swiss mountaineer Stephan Siegrist, who, with the help of equipment supplier Mammut, decided to try a change from his usual challenge of scaling an alp. He’s also a bit of an extreme-photography nut, and enjoys nothing more than to be the subject of a truly spectacular image such as this.

Look kinda hairy to you? Not to Siegrist—he lives for the thrill of peaks such as the Cerro Torre in Patagonia, or the north face of Switzerland’s Eiger. After these epics, clambering along a cable-car cable 82 feet off the ground is “just a bit of fun.” www.stephan-siegrist.ch

CrEDIts

e l C halté n , arG e nti na

fACE timE

photography: Klaus FENglEr

“A journey into the epicenter of the elements” was how extreme climber Stefan Glowacz (in the foreground) described his successful ascent (on his third attempt) of the North Pillar of the Cerro Murallón mountain in Patagonia, with climbing partner Robert Jasper. The 3,609-foot climb has a nine-plus difficulty rating, thanks to conditions that forced Glowacz and Jasper to use a chainsaw to cut a base camp into an ice face as they made their way up. The route has been nicknamed “Gone With The Wind” because of the ferocious gales that whirl around the peak. Similarities to the Hollywood epic end there—except, perhaps, the route’s capacity to reduce grown men to tears.

More high literature: “Stefan Glowacz Expeditions, Extreme Climbing at the End of the World,” www.glowacz.de

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m o u nt st. e lia s , al a s k a

pEAk disCipLinE

photography: VItEK luDVIK/rED Bull CoNtENt pool

There’s rarely a soul on the slopes when you’re skiing Mount St. Elias—straddling the Alaska–Yukon border, it’s the second-highest peak in both the U.S. and Canada. There’s no runs, and only the gutsiest of ski adventurers for company. It’s a challenge that takes the likes of mountaineers Jon Johnston, Axel Naglich, and Peter Ressmann to tackle. The trio attempted the impossible in 2007: climbing the 18,000-foot peak, then making only the second-ever descent down, attempting to ski the longest snow-covered line on Earth. They fought Mount St. Elias’ characteristically wild climate and their own bodies, and only two of them—Naglich and Ressmann—completed the ascent and descent (Johnston decided not to continue the expedition). Their epic adventure is captured in director Gerald Salmina’s documentary, “Mount St. Elias.”

“Mount St Elias” is available on DVD and Blu-Ray. You can order or learn more about its chills ’n’ thrills at: www.mountstelias.com

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Bullevard Sports and culture on the quick.

Musical chairs World-class performers and producers in the hot seat for lectures at the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid.

RZA Wu-Tang Clan leader on working with Kanye West and the small matter of the future of hip-hop.

POLKA ACE Artist Yayoi Kusama likes to cover the world in dots.

Trees, screens, people... as far as Yayoi Kusama is concerned, you name it, it looks better with dots on it. The Japanese artist has been enriching the environment with polka-dotted paintings, sculptures, and performance pieces for almost 60 years. In 2008, Christie’s in New York sold Kusama’s 1959 painting “No.2” for $5.1 million, still the record for a living female artist.

Now, the 82-year-old’s autobiography, “Infinity Net,” is available in English. It reveals a traumatic childhood in Japan and her experiences in the glamorous New York art scene of the 1970s. www.yayoi-kusama.co.jp “Flowers That Bloom Tomorrow,” a 2011 sculpture

by Yayoi Kusama.

PEACHES Electro star talked about her onewoman Andrew Lloyd-Webber show, “Peaches Christ Superstar.”

ERYKAH BADU Understanding the power of the vocal at an audience with the “Queen of Neo-Soul.”

PICTURES OF THE MONTH

WE HAVE A WINNER!

EVERY SHOT ON TARGET

NILE RODGERS Learning from a master: producer of Bowie and Madonna; Chic’s pop classics; cancer survivor.

Watch all the lectures now at redbullmusicacademy.com

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Got a picture with a Red Bulletin flavor? Why not share it by heading over to: www.redbulletin.com Every month we print a selection, and the winner next month is guaranteed to never thirst again, thanks to this limited-edition, Red Bulletin-ized Sigg bottle. It’s tough. It’s functional. It’s Swiss.

Santorini It’s not just the debt in Greece that soars: Yoann Leroux freeruns at Red Bull Art of Motion.

Daniel Grund

B U L L E VA R D

Well played

2011’s best video games

REVOLTING AND TASTY

Three reasons why that guy’s asleep at his desk again:

Documenting social upheaval and cakes online.

WORDS: FLORIAN OBKIRCHER, ULRICH CORAZZA, WOOKIE WILLIAMS. PHOTOGRAPHY: DIRK MATHESIUS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GIANFRANCO TRIPODO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GETTY IMAGES, NEAL BEIDLEMAN, LAIF, CORBIS

Everest-ful: Chris Davenport says “hi” from up high.

On the roof of the world Freestyle skier Chris Davenport and his team prepared for their Himalayan expedition for several weeks. They weren’t merely intending to climb Mount Everest—any tourist can do that these days—but get up there and ski.

“I was struck indescribably a number of times during the ascent,” says the 40-year-old from Aspen, Colo. “It’s magical to see the sun rising over Tibet at 4:30 in the morning with the ‘roof of the world’ bathed in a pink-orange light. It’s a surreal play of colors.” Davenport was overcome by emotion as he reached the summit (29,029 feet) in glorious sunshine. “To know that you’re standing at the highest point on Earth is a moment you’ll never forget. You just feel very grateful to be there.” And yet danger is never far away: “I had to promise my wife that I’d only get in touch when I was past the notorious Khumbu Icefall and safely back at base camp.” Davenport made another dream come true in the Himalayas, too. During “one of the most inspiring descents” on Lhotse, a neighboring mountain about 1,139 feet shorter—the world’s fourth highest—he and his team were able to leave 12-inchdeep tracks in untouched, powdery snow. www.chrisdavenport.com

Tampa Red Bull Flugtag, Floridian style:

Team UFO forgot the put-pilot-in-plane-first rule.

Robert Snow

“BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY” Batman versus The Joker in a Bat-loreful urban adventure.

“CALL OF DUTY: MW 3” War games, from Berlin to a Serbian diamond mine.

Xeni Jardin is one of four editors of Boing Boing, one of the world’s top 20 mostviewed blogs, only it’s way more influential than that.

Its mix of geek culture, socially aware reportage, book reviews, baked goods, and pictures of cats has made it a touchstone of Internet life. Jardin writes on everything from facial hair to the Occupy movement.

Why has Boing Boing become so successful?

It was a happy accident, really. It started out as a printed magazine of sorts, about technology and science fiction. We are proof that you can achieve success if you follow your obsessions.

What is good blogging?

A friend of mine says that it’s like being a DJ. A great DJ knows what people want.

The Internet-powered uprising in some countries...

As a culture, we’re catching up with the shock of power and the disruptive balance of power the Internet creates.

This generation found a tool not seen as a tool that led to tremendous social disruption. ...yet online bullying rises.

The Web has to be a secure and joyous environment for innovations and creation to take place. The best antidote for bad speech is more good speech. Do not feed the trolls!

Why the obsession with cakes and mustaches?

Insane haircuts and beards are also popular. As for cakes, we’ve had Yoda, a DNA strand, a Dalek, the solar system. The perfect cake may be a dulce de leche Nyan Cat, s***ing fruity rainbows across a coconutstar-studded night sky. www.boingboing.net What a Web she weaves: the Internet’s Xeni Jardin.

L.A. NOIRE 1940s detective yarn fusing games and movies. So cinematic it was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Belo Horizonte “So, in Brazil, do Red Bull

Soapbox cars go real fast?” “Why, of corpse they do!”

Marcus De Simoni

Sharjah Red Bull Quicket in U.A.E.: two overs, two-a-side, and in India, always a crowd gathering.

Naim Chidiac 15

B U L L E VA R D

MacAskill

Millen

Pastrana

Coldplay at the Red Bull Sound Space.

Rhys Millen

Eavesdropping on Coldplay Coldplay played the debut show at the Red Bull Sound Space at KROQ FM in Los Angeles, and The Red Bulletin was there to pick up some tasty backstage gossip. Here’s a few delicious items: 1.) Bass player Guy Berryman doesn’t sing in the shower, but he sings in the bath—preferably Aloe Blacc’s “I Need A Dollar.”

2.) When he’s in the mood for sweets, Chris Martin would love a slice of apple cinnamon pie, thank you.

3.) The band’s secret dream is to get the original Guns N’ Roses lineup back together to perform. www.coldplay.com

Red Bull EmSee is a nationwide MC battle series hosted by Bun B. In October, emcee/ producer Patrick Gouch—aka Pat G—beat the likes of Rage 617 and D MAT to win the freestyle competition in Boston. Here he gives The Red Bulletin his firstperson account of the In his own words: work behind his winner Pat G. wordplay: “It was a test of wit. You had to make sure you were quick on your feet. The only form of practice you can do is to freestyle to yourself, look around at the items around you, and put those in perspective, and then make something out of it. It’s kind of like asking a girl out—she can only say one of two things. She’ll either love you or hate you at the end of the day.” www.redbullusa.com

Gora Zar Cyclists enjoy their downtime at Red Bull Road Rage in Poland.

Jakub Konwent

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Danny MacAskill

LIGHTS, CAMERA...

YouTube’s action-sports gets a wee bit slicker.

Though you’ll still have “David After Dentist,” YouTube is about to get more polished. This January, it is launching 100 channels of professionally produced video content. As one of the world’s top five producers of action-sports content, Red Bull Media House’s exclusive sports programs will be shown on the Red Bull Channel—from surfing to snowboarding and freestyle motocross. Here’s the top three videos: 1.) Danny MacAskill, “Way Back Home”—14.8 million Follow MacAskill as he tricks his way from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye.

2.) Travis Pastrana, Red Bull New Year No Limits Rally Car Jump—9.0 million Pastrana sails 269 feet over Long Beach Harbor in his rally car.

3.) Rhys Millen, Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. Truck Backflip Practice—5.2 million Backflipping a truck is all well and good—until you overshoot the ramp.

Check out these and other top-class videos on: www.youtube.com/user/redbull

Anglet So which way’s the sea? Surfer Michel Bourez tutors young wave riders in France.

Alex Laurel

Zagreb Words—not fists—pack a punch in the ring at the Croatian Red Bull MC Battle.

Tomislav Moze

PHOTOGRAPHY: ALEX RAUCH/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, JOSHUA DALSIMER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, ROBERT SNOW/RED BULL CONTENT POOL PAUL CALVER/RED BULL PHOTOFILES, BRENT BIELMANN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

O! Say can you EmSee?

Carissa Moore

B U L L E VA R D

ME AND MY BODY

AKSEL LUND SVINDAL Norway’s Super Giant Slalom Olympic gold medalist thinks nothing of slicing himself open in pursuit of the ultimate run.

START ’EM YOU NG

My parents gave me my first pair of yard-long skis kid for my third birthday, and later I gave them to my brother Simon and two cousins to use in their first or runs. As a child, I dreamed of being a professional a World Champion one day, but that was never a big focus–I just wanted to ski faster than the other kids.

FLY LIK E AN EAG LE

odd Until November 2007—give or take the managed dislocated shoulder or cracked rib—I’d into the to avoid any serious injuries. But I came ing for the Golden Eagle jump too fast during train d back and downhill in Beaver Creek, Colo. I leane flying 197 landed on the piste on my neck after slashed feet through the air. The edge of the ski h gash open my glute (yeah, my butt). The 6-inc had I ied worr were ors was so deep, the doct minal internal injuries, so they opened my abdo minal abdo the to ion addit In wall to check it out. en pelvis, injury, I had three broken ribs, a brok three and six facial fractures. I spent the next Oslo, weeks lying in a hospital bed in Vail and and that was the end of my season.

WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREAS JAKWERTH

BIG GOO D GUY

I focus on what I’m good at. I’m a big guy, and I’ll never get small—that’s a fact. It could be an advantage for slalom, and maybe giant slalom, to get lighter, but probably not for the speed events. So I focus on being fit and in good all-around shape, and then I take it from there.

MAS S APP EAL

I weigh around 220 lbs., and I lose 4–6 lbs. during the season. To stay fit without losing body mass, I do a lot of weight training, especially squats with a barbell—which is probably the exercise that skiers do the most. Having big, strong leg muscles are essential for a speed specialist.

I get stamina for an intensive season from running, cycling, and windsurfing in summer.

CH ILL-O UT FACTOR

I’m not into alternative trai ning methods like yoga, menta l training, or qigong. My preparation for the start of a race is pretty relaxed —I just take a couple of deep breaths.

I don’t make too much fuss about long-h aul flights, either, I just approach the m in a way that matches my temper ament—with peace and quiet. I like to relax, listen to music, and read a goo d book.

GOING LOCAL

I don’t follow a strict diet—I prefer to let my feelings guide me about what’s good for me and what my body needs. I prefer fresh food—local is best. I love sushi, salad, and food that doesn’t contain any kind of artificial flavorings. And I don’t really eat much fried food or sweet stuff.

FEAR AND SKIING IN AUSTR IA

Every now and then, the fear factor does kick in when I’m about to start off on a run. Especially if I’m not sure how to deal with the conditions, the speed, or other challenges in the course. The Kitzbühel event in Tyrol, Austria, is a typical race where you feel some fear.

LUCKY WEEKEND BREAK A year after that horror crash, I was back at the starting gate on the Birds of Prey run at Beaver Creek—and I was scared! But at the same time, I really wanted to win. I could hardly believe it when I swished to a halt at the end of the downhill and saw first position flash up on the scoreboard. I won the Super G the next day, too. I still get goose bumps when I think back to that weekend.

www.axlski.com

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b u l l e va r d

skate star

katherine reutter

The up-and-coming U.S. short-track talent finished second at the World Championships last year—but she really prefers a gold this time, thank you.

Born July 30, 1988 Champaign, Illinois Hero worship Mentored by fellow Champaign, Ill. native (and five-times gold medalist) Bonnie Blair.

Sign here U.S. Speed Skating fundraiser Stephen Colbert autographed her thigh on his TV show.

Medal count Won silver in the 1,000meter and bronze in the 3,000-meter at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Katherine Reutter (center) vies with Russia’s Olga Belyakova (left) and China’s Liu Qiuhong at the 2011 Worlds in Sheffield, U.K.

Ever since the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, Apolo Ohno has been the face of U.S. speed skating—but the times they are a-changin’. With his chances of competing at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in question, Katherine Reutter, 23, has been quietly laying the groundwork for Olympic glory. Reutter won two World Cup gold medals in October, a month after a nagging back injury made her coaches ponder benching her for the rest of the season to recuperate. But thanks to a new training regimen—and quite a lot of competitive grit—Reutter is back on track to make her mark at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Shanghai in March 2012. But first, there’s the little matter of this month’s U.S. championships. the red bulletin: Congrats on the gold bling—but it wasn’t an easy road to get here, was it? katherine reutter: I’ve had a back injury since last December. I hadn’t made it through a whole week without a major back spasm, to the point where I’m lying on the ground and no one can do anything.

What have you done to recuperate?

It’s been a lot of rehab in my core. I had hip surgery two years ago, so I’ve never really felt my core stability has been as strong since then—and if your core isn’t strong enough to hold things in alignment, your other muscles just start overcompensating.

With the intensity of the season, do you

have time to taper before a big event?

The next five weeks are really hard, but then we’ll back off during the competition. We’re always putting on just a little more training than we’re taking off. The stronger I get, the better my biomechanics become. And that’s the key to longevity in our sport—being smart and being strong over time.

Are you putting pressure on yourself to win overall at the Worlds?

The U.S. championships are in January, which picks our World Championships team. I have definite goals to win the overall this year—and the year after that—so there’s no question going into the Olympics what I can accomplish.

So you’re already thinking about 2014?

I’ve been thinking about Sochi since the day after Vancouver.

“The stronger I get, the better my biomechanics become— that’s the key to longevity in our sport: being smart and strong.”

katherinereutter.com

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WORDS: Ann DOnAhUE. PhOTOgRAPhy: ED MCCULLOCh/RED BULL COnTEnT POOL, gETTy IMAgES

Name Katherine Reutter

B U L L E VA R D

GEAR EVOLUTION

CROSS PURPOSE

Whether chasing down back-country powder or scaling impossibly wintry heights, the touring ski has been indispensable to generations of mountaineers—yet no ski has been quite as valued as Austria’s Kästle.

LIGHTWEIGHT KÄSTLE TOUR RANDONNÉE, 1979 Unveiled by Austrian ski manufacturer Kästle in 1979, the weight of these skis—a dainty 5 lbs., at a length of almost 5 1/2 feet—were an innovation at the time. But don’t let the humble nickname (randonnée is French for “hiking”) fool you. Mountain lions like Austrian climber Reinhold Messner were devotees—the mountaineer climbed the Shishapangma in Tibet in 1981 on them. One of the secrets of their success was their wood core—perforated with air ducts, it ensures both low weight and good stability. The tip and center of the skis were deliberately made soft to improve their maneuverability in deep, heavy, or granular snow.

EINST UND JETZT

MAXI LAXI

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WORDS: ROBERT SPERL

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B U L L E VA R D

THE NO-HOLE KÄSTLE TX77, 2011/12 The TX77 may be structurally based on the Tour Randonnée, but technologically, it’s more like a modern, easy-to-maneuver, freestyle ski. The torsion-box development, with its sandwich cap/wood core and fiberglass straps, saves on weight (it has a weight-per-unit area of 3.1 oz./square inch, compared to 3.56 oz./square inch for the Tour Randonnée) and optimizes performance (a high level of torsional rigidity combined with a good longitudinal flex). Rather than a small hole in the tip (the Randonnée had one for making a rescue slide), the TX77 relies on Hollowtech technology in the same place, which helps cut mass significantly.

PHOTOGRAPHY: KURT KEINRATH

www.kaestle-ski.com

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b u l l e va r d

where’s your head at?

Steven Spielberg “The Adventures of Tintin” is an “Indiana Jones” for the Pixar generation, and his “War Horse” is galloping into view as yet another Oscar contender. Now, 40 years since his first short movie, the master filmmaker is living a life less ordinary.

Do ub le In de mn ity

s December 18, even Spielberg on It all began for St family moved , Ohio. Later, the 1946, in Cincinnati a Western de ma iz.—where he to Scottsdale, Ar Boy his rn ea to 12 at Gun,” short, “The Last rch Ma In e. phy merit badg Scouts photogra light,” ire “F , vie mo st his fir 1964, he showed dad, with $500 from his a sci-fi story made to write nt wa “I . nix oe in Ph in a local theater his local e 17-year-old told movie scripts,” th .” all e ov ab g tin direc paper, “but I like

Awa k en in g

Having “Tintin” and “War Horse” out this year is no mean feat, but Spi elberg’s done the double act six tim es: in 1989 (“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”/“Always”); 1993 (“Jurassic Park”/ “Schindler’s List”); 1997 (“The Lost World: Jurassic Park”/“Amistad”); 2002 (“Minority Report”/” Catch Me If You Can”); and 2005 (“War of the Worlds”/“Munic h”).

An Education

Despite his teenage flicks, Spielberg could not get into film school at USC, so he studied at California State University, Long Beach, mainly to be near Universal Studios. With his first 35 mm short film— “Amblin’ ”—under his belt, he combined college with working as an unpaid intern in the editing department at Universal, securing a contract for a TV director role just before his 22nd birthday in 1968.

The Thi n Ma n

Spielberg was awarded his first honorary Oscar in 1987, at 41—an unusual choice for the unofficial “Lifetime Achievement” nod.

However, as Spielberg’s only “serious” movie at the time —“The Color Purple”—had a mixed reception, perhaps the Academy felt he wasn’t “Best Director”material yet. But within six years, “Saving Private Ryan” and “Schindler’s List” proved them wrong.

De ep Im pact

“Before I go off and direct a movie,” says Spielberg, “I always look at four films. They tend to be ‘Seven Samurai,’ ‘Lawrence Of Arabia,’ ‘It’s A Wonderful Life,’ and ‘The Searchers.’ ” So don’t be surprised to see his name on “Uncle Revenge-Blade’s Yuletide Adventure” (about a sword-swinging freedom-fighter who is searching for spiritua l guidance and his missing niece on Christm as Eve) some day.

All The President’s Men

Super 8 Actually, there were two and a half Spielberg movies released in 2011. The kids-and-aliens sci-fi movie, “Super 8,” is writer-director J.J. Abrams’ tribute to Spielberg’s work. Spielberg himself produced it (he has around 60 production credits on other directors’ movies), and the duo’s link goes deep: in 1982, Spielberg invited 15-year-old Abrams to repair his actual juvenile Super 8 mm movies. “It was like giving us the Mona Lisa,” Abrams says.

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The French Connection In 1977, “Star Wars” overtook “Jaws” as the most successful movie ever, but Spielberg regained the lead in 1983 with “E.T.,” extending it with 1993’s “Jurassic Park.” (“Avatar” is the current box-office champ.) When the dino movie killed in France, French intellectuals made Spielberg the chief demon of U.S. “commercial totalitarianism,” but in 2004, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest civil honor.

A key motivation behind his movie of the play and children’s novel “War Horse,” says Spielberg, “was to bring families together”— not a spectacularly unusual aim for his movies. But after “War Horse” (which will be released worldwide on Christmas Day, first in the U.S.), his next movie is one for the grown-ups: “Lincoln,” starring Daniel DayLewis, focuses on the 16th president’s role in ending the Civil War and slavery. www.warhorsemovie.com

words: paul wilson. illustration: lie-ins and tigers

Fa ntastic Fo ur

After his TV stint—wh ich included directing the first epi sode of the “Columbo” series—Spie lberg made his big-screen debut with “The Sugarland Express” in 1974. The following summer, his mega-hit about a killer shark changed movie s forever. Widely release d, advertised, and merchandized, “Jaws ” was the first “delibe rate” blockbuster—not bad for a movie that was ma de using a faulty rubber shark, which Spielberg nicknamed “Bruce” aft er his lawyer, Bruce Ra mer.

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HARD & FAST

Top performers and winning ways from around the globe.

ia A Giant Slalom victory in Sölden, Austr made Lindsey Vonn (U.S.A.) the fifth all female skier ever to have won a race in 44). five Alpine disciplines (see story, page

Kreayshawn rocked the Red Bulletin stage at the New Orleans Voodoo Fest.

DO THAT VOODOO

WORDS: ANN DONAHUE. PHOTOGRAPHY: SEAN GARDENR, GETTY IMAGES (2), CHRISTIANO BARNI, AP

How do you fill a stage at the New Orleans Voodoo Fest?

Fatboy Slim, Kreayshawn, and Girl Talk are a good start.

City Park, New Orleans, boasts the highest concentration of lazily drooping oak trees this side of a “True Blood” episode. The vibe might ooze antebellum, but the sounds emanating from the grand ’ole park every Halloween are more Jack-andCoke than mint julep. Snoop Dogg, Jack White and the Raconteurs, as well as Cheap Trick and Soundgarden, headlined the Voodoo Music Experience, now in its 12th year at City Park.

Voodoo’s always been a bit of an antidote to the city’s jazz legacy, while at the same time providing the showcase for a lot of the genre crossmingling that’s taken hold since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city six years ago.

With a shout out to the city’s striving electronic-music scene, The Red Bulletin stage featured both the cream of the current DJ crop (ATrak, Girl Talk, Fatboy Slim) as well as some of the strongest visual electronic-music performers around (Fort Knox Five, Kreayshawn) who held sway over the outstretched

arms of thousands of Halloween-ed NOLA revelers.

“It was intense. Everyone was going crazy and on top of each other’s shoulders,” said Kreayshawn, whose Saturday night prime-time set will get some airtime on Red Bull Music Academy Radio. “There was this bright light that would flash out randomly, and when you could see the bright light, you could see how far back, how packed everyone is. And you’re like ‘Can you even hear me that far?’ ” It was the Bay Area fashion-mavencum-hip-hop starlet’s first appearance at Voodoo, and she donned a “zombified, murdered schoolgirl” outfit she says was inspired by the Japanese manga, Sailor Moon.

Z-Trip, who, played a crowdpleasing set ahead of Kreayshawn, noticed a change in the New Orleans of the past few years. “It’s more vibrant and alive than it’s been,” he said. “You’ll never kill the heart and soul here. I love playing to the people here. They are so open.”

Spain’s Marc Coma (center) set a world record with his fifth victory in the Pharaons Rally, Egypt. Helder Rodrigues (left) is the first Portuguese all-terrain world champion.

Australia’s Casey Stoner won by 0.015 seconds in Valencia’s heavy rain, securing his second MotoGP World Championship.

Former motocross racer Rickie Fowler (U.S.A.), just 22, won his first professional golf title finishing six shots ahead of rival Rory McIlroy at the Korean Open.

Sets from Z-Trip, Kreayshawn, Daedalus, and others at redbullmusicacademyradio.com

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winning formula

Spin, DoctoreD

Tennis is faster because the players are fitter and the rackets are better? Partly. It’s also because of topspin.

the prof “to understand how topspin affects the game of tennis,” says dr. Martin apolin from Vienna’s institute of physics, “let’s first look at what happens to a ball hit without it, at a height that just clears the net horizontally (Fig. 1). the height of the net at its center point is 36 inches (1 yard). regardless of a ball’s horizontal speed, its vertical speed remains constant. so first you need to know how long the ball takes to reach the floor from the height of the net. the relation between the time (t) and depth (s) of the fall is: t = √ 2s/g, where gravitational acceleration (g), is given as 10.7 yds./sec.2. so the time it takes for the ball to drop 1 yard to the ground is 0.43 seconds. “the distance between net and baseline is 13 yards. For the ball to stay in play, it can’t travel further than that in 0.43 seconds. speed is distance over time—and if we assume the extreme case, where the ball lands 13 yards from the net, we get a maximum speed of 30.2 yds./sec. (62 mph). any faster than that, and the line judge will call the ball out. Measurements from hawk-eye, a ball-tracking system used to clarifiy disputed line calls, show that hard hitters like nadal can hit the ball at speeds of 112 mph over the net. Balls hit that hard land in the court because of one thing: spin. “our estimation above, which explicitly refers to non-spinning balls, gives a maximum speed of 62 mph. yet nadal hits the ball so that it travels 80 percent faster than that. the topspin he applies to the ball shortens the flight path—but why? “nadal and his peers can generate a topspin of 5,000 rpm, or 80 rpm per second, so imagine a ball that has been hit with topspin traveling from right to left. the ball encounters a headwind from the left (Fig. 3a). “as the ball spins, a thin layer of air molecules acting as a boundary rotates with the ball, and then creates a circulating airflow around it (Fig. 3b). the headwind and circulating airflow combine (Fig. 3c), forcing the air behind the ball. the total momentum must be maintained, and thus the ball is forced downward. “this downward force is known as the Magnus effect, and in addition to the downward force of gravity, it causes the fast-moving, fast-spinning ball to drop faster than it would without spin.” www.rafaelnadal.com

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Words: dr Martin apolin, ruth Morgan. photography: glyn KirK/aFp/getty iMages. illustration: Mandy Fischer

the pro “Without topspin, modern tennis wouldn’t be what it is,” says Martin Baldridge, a tennis coach with over 30 years’ experience, who also competes in international senior tournaments. “rather than hitting the ball straight off the racket, topspin is achieved by starting from below and pushing up the back of the ball, imparting a forward rotation to it. the rotation creates air pressure, which forces the ball down to the court faster, meaning players can hit harder and still keep the ball within the baseline.”

Baldridge adds, “in the past 10 years, levels of professionalism, training, and physical fitness have gone up so much that players are hitting the ball harder and harder, and the only way to control that is to put a lot of rotation on it. hard hitters like rafael nadal are kings of spin, making the ball rotate at speeds of up to 5,000 rpm.”

Pulling the strings: Rafael “Rafa” Nadal dominates the play with topspin. No other stroke in tennis can produce more spin— without it, Nadal’s power would be severely diminished.

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LUCKY NUMBERS

NOBEL PRIZES

A short list of declined awards, crushed limousines, and catastrophic divorce settlements on the occasion of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

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30,000,000

On December 10 (the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee (both from Liberia) and Tawakkul Karman (from Yemen) received the Nobel Peace Prize for their “peaceful fight for women’s rights and security.” The Nobel Peace Prize category has the highest number of female winners, at 15. In contrast, American political economist Elinor Ostrom is the only woman to have won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009; it was first awarded, alongside the original five-prize lineup, in 1969.

Tawakkul Karman

10 In addition to a medal and a certificate, each Nobel laureate also receives 10 million Swedish krona (about $1.5 million). American economist Robert Lucas Jr. had to share his 1995 prize for economics with his ex-wife Rita, because when they divorced in 1988, she negotiated that she would receive half of any Nobel Prize money her husband might be awarded Robert Lucas, Jr. within the next seven years. There’s another incentive to try to win a Nobel Prize; a study shows Nobel laureates live between one and two years longer than those who are merely nominated.

Harvard University has been awarding an antiNobel Prize—the Ig Nobel Prize—for achievements that “make people laugh, then make them think.”

Their 2011 Peace Prize went to Arturas Zuokas, mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running over them with a Theodore tank, while the 2009 Mathematics Prize Roosevelt went to Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.

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2

The first American Nobel Prize winner was 26th president Theodore Roosevelt, who received the Peace Prize in 1906 for the Portsmouth Treaty. The only Vietnamese laureate to date, Le Duc Tho, refused his 1973 Peace Prize as he had not yet been able to reach a peace settlement for the conflict in Vietnam.

The only other Nobel nominee to refuse an award was French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who declined the Literature Prize in 1964 because he had consistently declined all official honors.

100,000,000,000,000

The Curie family

The Curie family of scientists are closely bound up with the Nobel Prize, winning three prizes. Marie— the first female prizewinner, and one of only four people to win the honor twice — and her husband Pierre jointly received the 1903 Physics Prize, and Marie won the Chemistry Prize in 1911. In 1935, their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, also received the Chemistry Prize.

Sigmund Freud had less luck with matters Nobel—he was nominated on 12 occasions, but came away empty-handed every time. www.nobelprize.org

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WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: PICTUREDESK.COM (3), CORBIS (1)

Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel had registered 355 patents— including those for dynamite and the stabler gelignite—by the time of his death in 1896. In his will, he decreed that the bulk of his enormous fortune—an eight-figure sum (30,000,000 Swedish krona, about $4.5 million)—should go into a foundation. The interest on his fortune was to fund a prize for those “who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” The prize fund was to be divided into five equal parts for physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace.

R O T C A F

lian i z Bra a o t d d ont islan es an r f l h eac to an e loca rable. b s o i’ th on uba then film, s mem D r n d of ur s, an X-Me ighte o F n m gla 00 fa in an ull X g n B 0 n i ter f 100, st see s Red t i l ’ g o r la the front dney is yea m Fro tle in in Sy de th bat pyard at ma s shi ion th in hyne act : Just s

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rd Wo

PhotograPhy: BalaZs gardi/red Bull X-Fighters (2)

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tHe dUeLIStS This year’s World Tour was all about the battle between two riders with two distinct styles: the flamboyant, instinctive showmanship of Spain’s Dany Torres (this page), and the ultra-honed perfectionism of U.S. defending double champion Nate Adams (left). The duel took them from the opening round in Dubai to a final dramatic competition in Sydney.

Stop 1: dUBaI

PhotograPhy: Joerg Mitter/red Bull X-Fighters (2), daniel grund/red Bull X-Fighters

Perennially tipped as freestyle motocross’ “one to watch,” Dany Torres’ progress to the very top had been blighted in recent years by injury. But, fit and fresh for round one of the 2011 World Tour in Dubai, the Spaniard was unstoppable. In the run-up, all the headlines had been about Nate Adams vying for a third Red Bull X-Fighters crown, but after Saturday night on Jumeirah Beach, the story had changed—now it was all about Torres and whether the stunning skills he displayed in Dubai could be carried across the whole season.

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“It’s disappointing, but I’m still definitely aiming for a third title. This will just have to be my throwaway round.”

Nate Adams, Dubai, U.A.E.

Levi Sherwood (bottom left) nails a Heelclicker Flip, while Nate Adams (top let) performs a Superman Double Grab during round one at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai (main picture).

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“It was an incredible night, and one I imagine I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Totally spectacular.”

Robbie Maddison, Brasília, Brazil

Stop 2: BRaSĺLIa Leading up to round two in Brasília, Dany Torres injured a foot, and despite battling through qualifying, he was forced to sit out the finals. That left the way clear for Nate “The Destoyer” Adams to ride to a head-to-head showdown with Australian Robbie Maddison in the competition final. While “Maddo” gave his best performance for some time, Adams was in irresistible form, blasting through a flawless run and storming to the series lead. Perhaps Adams’ near-perfect run was inspired by the presence of 100,000 fans in the Brazilian capital, the largest crowd ever seen at an FMX competition.

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Stop 3: RoMe

PhotograPhy: andreas sChaad/red Bull X-Fighters, oliVer sChran/red Bull X-Fighters, Joerg Mitter/red Bull X-Fighters

Rome made its FMX World Tour debut in 2010, but such was the passion of Italian FMX fans that for the 2011 edition, the event migrated from the compact Stadio Flaminio to the cavernous surrounds of the Stadio Olimpico, home of both the Roma and Lazio soccer clubs. And in front of 45,000 fans, Dany Torres’ woes continued. After blitzing his qualifying trials, he looked genuinely unbeatable, but in the main event, he overextended a Saran Wrap Backflip to Nac Nac trick, tumbling off the bike and into a wall.

The Spaniard was unhurt, but the crash ended his challenge in Rome. Nate Adams flew to a second consecutive victory, beating Norway’s Andre Villa in the final, while Australian youngster Josh Sheehan came out of nowhere to take third. Adams looked ominously consistent, sending a further chill down the spine of his rivals by announcing, “Now I’m going for the Tour title.” It wouldn’t be quite so straightforward, though, as the next round would show.

Robbie Maddison (left) lapping up the adulation in Brazil. The stunning location of Rome’s Stadio Olimpico (top right), where Josh Sheehan performed a Tsunami Backflip (right).

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Stop 4: MadRId After lucking into his Rome win through Torres’ misfortune, Nate Adams was the victim of payback a month later in the runup to the Madrid round. Following a crash in Rome and another accident during practice at home in California—after which he was nursing damage to his knee, shoulder, and hand—the defending champ was forced to forgo the trip to Spain. Dany Torres gleefully took the chance presented, and—buoyed by playing to a full-house crowd in the historic Plaza de Toros de las Ventas bullring—rode a spectacular final against Australian Blake Williams, including some huge, brand-new trick combinations. But it was Norway’s Andre Villa who profited the most. Villa— who had been Adams’ title runner-up in the previous year—had tricked his way to fifth place in Madrid, but having notched three podium finishes in the opening events, he stealthily stole into first place in the Tour standings, ahead of both Adams and the third-placed Torres.

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PhotograPhy: andreas sChaad/red Bull X-Fighters, Joerg Mitter/red Bull X-Fighters

The crowd at Madrid’s Plaza de Toros de las Ventas bullring (above) was wowed by local hero Dany Torres (main pic), who unleashed tricks such as this Superman Seat Grab Flip.

“This is really important.

Two months ago, I had an injury, but now I can ride in Madrid, and this crowd is the best.”

Dany Torres, Spain

Stop 5 : poznaŃ Red Bull X-Fighters returned to Poland after a three-year absence, and Poznań’s new state-of-the-art stadium (above and right) should have been the venue for Andre Villa to stamp his authority on the 2011 tour. But in qualifying, the Norwegian under-rotated a backflip, crashing heavily and breaking his left femur—an injury that ended his season. The finale then was all about Dany Torres and Nate Adams. The Spaniard unleashed a barrage of huge moves—including a 360 Nac, the one trick Adams had over him earlier in the season. But Adams—hot on the back of two gold medals at the X Games—was in no mood to be defeated, and delivered a big-tricking masterclass to take his third victory of the season. With just one round left, he was back on top of the standings, although only 45 points ahead of Torres.

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Stop 6 : Sydney Red Bull X-Fighters’ first-ever visit to Australia should have been the scene for a thrilling showdown between Torres (left) and Adams, but once again, injury intervened, and it was Adams who lost out as a torn rotator cuff and cracked humerus sidelined him before the start of the competition. Torres then just needed fourth or better to clinch the title, and he sealed the deal by advancing to the semifinal when he met local hero Josh Sheehan. The Aussie Tour rookie delivered a torrent of double backflips to dismiss Torres, but with Adams only able to watch from the sidelines, Torres had done enough to be crowned king of the 2011 World Tour. Sheehan went on to beat Levi “Rubber Kid” Sherwood in the Sydney final, with the Aussie’s first Red Bull X-Fighters win confirming the arrival of a new young superstar on the FMX scene.

PhotograPhy: Joerg Mitter/red Bull X-Fighters (2), Flo hagena/red Bull X-Fighters

www.redbullxfighters.com

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His Dark Places If Sean Penn were merely an indisputably great movie actor, that would be fine.

But it’s his humanitarian efforts—and struggles with his own humanity—that make him as compelling offscreen as on.

Words: Rüdiger Sturm Photography: Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum

SEAN PENN (opposite) Driven by his restless demons and a childhood overshadowed by a stormy relationship with his mother, the actor’s life has been punctuated by inner turmoil and impassioned political gestures.

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Penn as Cheyenne in “This Must Be the Place.”

The word “statuesque” is often used to describe a certain kind of movie star, but it applies to Sean Penn in a very different way.

Sculpted upper arms visible underneath the sleeves of his T-shirt, his facial muscles look like they’re cut out of marble as his gaze fixes on the horizon. The only sign of life is the American Spirit cigarette on which Penn drags repeatedly, in flagrant violation of the smoking ban at the Carlton Hotel here in Cannes.

Every moviegoer knows what strength lies within. It can take on the most varied of forms—the bitter avenger, as in “Mystic River,” for which the 51-year-old won his first Oscar; the campaigning liberator, as in “Milk,” which brought him Oscar number two; or the bizarre, as in his latest film. In “This Must Be the Place,” he plays a washed-up former rock star, a mixture of Robert Smith and Ozzy Osbourne, who travels around the U.S. in search of a fugitive Nazi war criminal who tormented his father.

Ask Penn where this energy comes from, and he won’t say.

“I have no interest in analyzing myself,” he says laconically, in a tone that makes it sound like he’s gurgling pebbles. Penn’s voice and gaze then trail off into the ether before he decides to give an insight after all. “I admit that I’ve always been driven by some sort of anger. An anger that is completely undeserved.

I wouldn’t recommend it as a source of motivation, but it’s always worked for me.”

It’s anyone’s guess as to what he means by the word “undeserved.” There is good reason to assume that he might put his existential orientation down to the influence of his mother, Eileen Ryan, a former actress who gave up her career for the sake of her family and who battled alcoholism. She was, as she admitted, provocative and prickly toward her eldest son, who therefore spent his youth fighting with her. Her reaction to his first appearance on stage was typical: “You’re awful. Give up now.”

Earlier girlfriends tried to get him to see a psychotherapist for his anger problems, but it came to nothing. His marriage to fellow actor Robin Wright, which ended in divorce in 2010, was a 14-year battle of wills between two partners that each gave as good as they got (as had been the case with Madonna, his first wife). When Wright is asked about Penn now, she says: “I don’t think I need to say anything on the matter.”

How bearable is a public life when you’re plagued by private demons? It is no coincidence that Penn’s fourth (and perhaps most personal) work as a director, 2007’s “Into The Wild,” tells the story of a dropout. The need to give up on—and move away from—the bourgeois way of life is his default existential setting.

“I feel it every day, and always have done,” says Penn. “There have been times when I’ve dropped out in my own way, and that gave me new strength and energy. I can thoroughly recommend

it to everyone because you get a whole new kind of perspective on your life. And you should do it over and over again. It’s the healthiest of all the addictive behaviors.”

That said, Penn has yet to wander off into the solitude of nature. “The urge to leave everything behind isn’t as strong if you can make yourself useful, regardless of how you do it,” says Penn. “It’s only when you feel you’re counterproductive that there’s nowhere better than the wild.”

And Penn has had a raison d’être during the past two decades: his children with Wright, daughter Dylan Frances and son Hopper Jack, now 20 and 18, respectively. “Nothing in life has given me as much satisfaction as bringing them up,” explains Penn. “It’s thanks to them that I never gave up on civilization altogether.”

The “dropping out” that he speaks of takes a number of forms; acting is only one of his outlets. Penn is driven on by other, more radical needs. “It’s never been more important for us to pull together as humankind. I love humanity,” he says.

This isn’t just lip service. Penn doesn’t think of himself as a charitable ambassador who jets into a crisis zone, shielded by bodyguards, to shake the hands of photogenic people in need.

“You need a greater dose of life if you want something new to happen inside of you,” is a motto he lives up to. In September 2011, he was out on Cairo’s Tahrir Square with Egyptian demonstrators, protesting against the delay in making reforms. He traveled to Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led invasion to get a firsthand impression of what was really going on. He had the same motive when he went to L.A.’s race riot-convulsed ghettos in 1992, where a shopping cart smashed through his car’s windshield. In 2005, he waded through the brackish water hours after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans to rescue victims of the flooding. His most spectacular intervention came in 2010, soon after the earthquake in Haiti, when the charitable organization he had founded—J/P HRO—was running camps for around 55,000 survivors. (By the fall of 2011, that figure had gone down to around 23,000.)

When he has to, Penn can eloquently put across his point of view and side of the argument, such as in his reports on Iraq for the San Francisco Chronicle, and his articles on meeting Fidel Castro and Venezuelan head of state Hugo Chávez for The Nation.

Ask him about this work, and he plays it all down.

“In Haiti, I have a very good team, which I rely on to a large extent, because when I’m working on a film, I concentrate fully on that, and only keep myself informed of what’s going on,” explains Penn. “So, I would be filming ‘This Must Be The Place’ during the day, and then in the evening I would get back to the trailer and check my messages on the answering machines,

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PHOTOGRAPHY: IMAGE.NET

Penn’s mother was provocative and prickly toward her eldest son.

Her reaction to his first appearance on stage was typical: “You’re awful.

Give up now.”

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A mix of Ozzy Osbourne and Robert Smith.

hoping that nothing disastrous had happened in Haiti. We were barely finished when I got the news of the cholera outbreak.”

Penn continues, “As much as I wish it had never happened, it was at the right time for me. It would have been really frustrating if it had happened while we were filming.”

As a highly decorated member of the Hollywood community, Penn is used to an environment where people aren’t necessarily interested in this sort of thing. They would much rather know what kind of feelings he has for Scarlett Johansson, whom he was seen whispering sweet nothings to for a couple of months earlier this year. But is there, as far as he is concerned, a tension between his professional life and everything else?

“I do appreciate that,” says Penn. “Am I confronted with it?

I don’t really know. Everyone fights against that. Part of me feels that one of the biggest fights I have to fight has nothing to do with the excessive hype of the illusion of celebrity. I mean, even if we paid teachers the same wage as actors—i.e., if we lived in a fair world—you’d still have to wrestle with your performance as an actor. I mean, you’re trapped in your own nature, your body, your own rhythm and weaknesses.”

As confused as the words may sound—and it’s the answer he most stumbled over during our time together—they make sense on closer inspection. Penn doesn’t see himself as part of an industry that defines itself with the word “show.” His hyperconcentration focuses on his internal processes, and the “wrestle” is with himself— the person he is trapped inside, yet through which he still has to try to take on the identity of another to play a role. As far as he is concerned, his public image is just “another battle; it’s deadweight. It’s a war on the public’s ability to concentrate.” In other words, forget Sean Penn the person, and just embrace the role he plays.

Being Sean Penn, then, is a battle on two fronts: the roles he chooses to play as an actor, and the role he hasn’t chosen for himself as a public figure. Neither we—nor he—can reduce this conflict, this swing between destructive and productive character traits. Take, for example, the subject of Penn’s welldocumented admiration for the rock ’n’ roll storytelling of Bruce Springsteen. Ask him to name his favorite song by The Boss, and “I made a film about it,” is his short answer. The song is “Highway Patrolman,” and its lyrics inspired Penn’s 1991 directorial debut, “The Indian Runner”—which he also wrote— about an upright, happily married policeman named Joe, who tries to look after his aggressive brother Frank, but is unable to stop his brother’s tendency for self-destruction. At the end, Joe lets Frank wander across the border to evade arrest for murder.

In one interview, Penn confirmed that these two personalities

also swirl around inside him—that he is, in some ways, both Joe and Frank. He is better equipped at bringing the two sides into balance now than in his younger days, although in 2010, he was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and ordered to attend anger-management classes after repeatedly kicking out at a paparazzo [the community service was completed through his relief efforts in Haiti]. Channeling that anger in other directions requires commitment, and Penn is not a man for compromises.

“When I go jogging,” he says, “I want to collapse on the ground from exhaustion at the end of it. Otherwise, I feel I haven’t pushed myself hard enough, that I haven’t applied all my energy. I want to do the same in every area of my life.”

And he can express it in a more philosophical way, too.

“It’s a crappy joke when we say God exists,” he says. “If we say God doesn’t exist, it’s the same crappy joke. Because, damn, nobody knows if He exists, and no one will ever know.

But you just accept it, and act accordingly in whatever you do. As Edgar Lee Masters put it in his poem, “Davis Matlock,” “Well, I say to live it out like a god/Sure of immortal life, though you are in doubt,/Is the way to live it./If that doesn’t make God proud of you/Then God is nothing but gravitation,/ Or sleep is the golden goal.”

“I think I’m optimistic enough to say that we can [accept it and act accordingly],” explains Penn.

“But the pessimist in me says we won’t bring ourselves to.”

He seems very determined to live a life according to this principle, and he has moments of peace where “something taps me on the shoulder.” When does that happen? “When I can surf for a good 10 minutes on the ocean stretched out before me,” says Penn, who, as a teenager, discovered what he calls the “harmony” and “spirituality” he experiences when surfing.

It seems, therefore, that it is possible for Penn to serenely enjoy the magic of a moment, that he can experience something akin to real happiness. “Yes, I can find a sunset beautiful, for example,” he explains. “But the times when the world shows you its magic are rare. You have to grab them when they come.

But the concept of happiness is a little too much for me. I just think to myself, ‘Oh, that’s pretty.’ ” Penn seems to find a hint of amusement in this answer, and all of a sudden appears to be in something of a good mood.

But, as he’s already said, it’s all a question of interpretation with these things … and we’ll never know for sure.

For it is then that he gets up and trudges out of the hotel suite—a walking monument, his gaze turned inward to thoughts of his own very private, very grueling universe.

PHOTOGRAPHY: THE KOBAL COLLECTON

“When I go jogging, I want to collapse on the ground from exhaustion at the end of it.

Otherwise, I feel I haven’t pushed myself hard enough.

I want to do the same in every area of my life.”

Sean Penn helps Haiti: www.jphro.org

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Dreamy blue eyes, a curvaceous silhouette, and a come-hither smile?

Check. Add to that a dozen championships, two Olympic medals, and a possible gig as Justin Bieber’s ski instructor, and you’ll get why Lindsey Vonn is the sporting world’s new it girl.

Words: Ann Donahue Photography: Emily Shur

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SILVER JACKET FROM JET SET; GOGGLES FROM A FRAME BY OAKLEY

IT’S SNOW TIME

There are many things in this life that Lindsey Vonn is well prepared for: bombing down a snowy mountain in the Alps at 70 mph; pulling a Cool Hand Luke and eating a dozen hard-boiled eggs at one sitting as part of her training diet; enduring various injuries—from a deep shin bruise to broken bones—and getting back on her skis without hesitation the next day.

Catching Bieber fever, however, was unexpected.

“When I met Justin Bieber, he was like, ‘Well, I’ve been skiing quite a few times, would you ever give me a lesson?’ And I was like, ‘Are you kidding? Of course,’ ” Vonn says. “It would be pretty sweet.”

It’s nearly two years since Vonn won the downhill gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics with an exhortative scream and a jubilant tumble in the snow, and she now finds herself in an unexpected place: in a sport that only receives the laser-like attention of the U.S. public and media every four years, she 46

remains in the spotlight as one of the country’s preeminent female athletes. She’s won the Excellence in Sports Award (ESPY) for Best Female Athlete for two years running, is a regular fixture during the offseason at Hollywood events, and clowns around with other top professional athletes in TV commercials.

And this is what it means to be an elite female athlete at the dawn of 2012. It’s not enough to be a fierce and successful competitor—you can win enough Olympic medals to give the Federal Reserve a run for its money; you can serve a tennis ball at 130 mph; you can throw off your helmet and brawl in the pit lane with the best of NASCAR—but by God, you also better look smashing in a red-carpet dress.

“For women, sports is still a young profession,” says Los Angeles publicist Jeff Freedman, whose recent clients include movies that involve both actors and athletes, like “Moneyball,” “Real Steel,” and the

SEQUIN DRESS FROM AIDAN MATTOx; DROP EARINGS FROM ERICA COURTNEY

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She has helped redefine the title of America’s sweetheart. upcoming “Haywire.” “The notoriety that male athletes get automatically, female athletes have to work to get. And if you’re playing off your notoriety, you have to have something to play off of.”

Vonn’s notoriety is straightforward: she has helped redefine the title of America’s sweetheart as someone who can flash a big smile, yet still maintain a complete and total willingness to kick your ass. And for now, at least, her participation in the celebrity maelstrom is more enjoyable than obligatory.

“It’s really fun—I mean, it’s still part of the job, but I enjoy it,” she says. “I love getting dressed up and feeling feminine, and having some really, really high heels on. I like being able to meet people— when I was shooting the ESPN promo for the ESPYs, I was hanging out with Carmelo Anthony, talking to him about what he’s doing with training and how his knee rehab is going. It’s really interesting.”

In that ad, Vonn and Anthony are gussied up and dancing together at a high school prom when ESPYs host Seth Meyers interrupts in chirpy sidelinereporter mode for a post-dance interview. Vonn huffily refuses to speculate about whom she’s picked to dance with next, and Anthony admits a deep fear of bluegrass music being played.

But there’s a limit, of course, to how much time Vonn can spend in front of the camera. It’s all fun and games as long as playing along with the Hollywood dream factory doesn’t get in the way of her winning.

Being famous isn’t new to Vonn—what’s new to her is being famous in America. In Europe, the fervor surrounding professional skiing is actually more akin to that associated with the teenage girls following Justin Bieber.

“In Europe, it’s more of an obsession with the 47

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“I don’t get the people waiting for me outside my hotel room in the U.S., which I do in Europe.”

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CARDIGAN FROM YIGAL AZROUEL; BLACK DRESS FROM FAITH CONNExION; COCKTAIL RING FROM ERICA COURTNEY STYLING: JAK/WWW.JESSICAANDKELLY.COM. HAIR AND MAKEUP: NORIKO KERNS USING PHILIP B AT THERExAGENCY.COM

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sport, and you definitely get more fanatical fans,” she says. “Which is awesome—every sport needs that.

But I don’t get the people waiting for me outside my hotel room in the U.S., which I do in Europe.”

The competition during the World Cup 2011 season between Vonn and German skier Maria HöflRiesch was intense, and ended with a controversial event in Switzerland when the final deciding race was canceled as the result of weather, which meant the overall title was handed to Riesch.

European newspapers had a field day over the feud between the two—the U.K.’s Telegraph described their relationship as “frosty.” Vonn and Riesch were longtime best friends—they raced against each other on the juniors circuit—and they also vacationed together during the off-season. But there was a public falling out in the early part of the 2011 season, with Vonn eventually writing a lengthy post on her Facebook page about comments Riesch made about her to the press and deciding not to attend Riesch’s upcoming wedding. “I am very hurt by her actions, and I honestly don’t know where our friendship stands at this point,” she wrote.

Months after the season ended, she and Riesch settled the matter. Says Vonn: “We talked in New Zealand, and I think we both decided that we’re just not going to talk about our friendship in public. We obviously have a lot of respect for each other.”

The current season has big implications for the sport’s top two competitors. In addition to the U.S. stop over Thanksgiving weekend in Aspen, the women’s ski tour will hold races in Sochi, Russia— the site of the 2014 Olympic Games—for the first time. It’s valuable practice for Vonn, who needs just one run on a course to commit it to memory for a turn-by-turn visualization.

“I have a photographic memory,” she says. “When I was 11 or 12, I started training with Ski Club Vail, and as a team we would have these visualization lessons where we would get in our tuck and visualize the course we had just run in the morning. They always timed it to see how long it took, and I was pretty darn close to my actual time.”

During months of preseason, on-the-slopes training in the Southern Hemisphere skiing meccas of Chile and New Zealand, and three-a-day gym workouts at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista (near San Diego), Vonn focused on improving her giant slalom and slalom skiing. These two events have flummoxed Vonn in the past—she has become known more for crashing than for finishing, let alone winning—but she opened this ski season by winning her first giant slalom, becoming just the fifth woman in skiing history to win all five World Cup events.

“Those two events have been my big focus, and trying to get more consistent—trying just to get to the finish line sometimes,” Vonn laughs. “I want to keep building on that.”

Which means that for 2014 in Sochi, she’s working toward putting herself in the Michael Phelps-ian position of being a medal contender in every event her sport offers. “I was thinking about it pretty much since Vancouver was over,” Vonn says. “I always think about it. It’s always in the back of my mind.”

As Vonn’s attention turns to Sochi, so will the press—from sport-dilettante Web sites to the major networks. It is inevitable that alpine skiing will once again take center stage in NBC’s Olympics coverage, and that Vonn will be the public face of the sport— being an athlete from the country that houses the media machine means that, as Vonn did in Vancouver in 2010, you announce your pre-Olympics injury via Matt Lauer, then joke about your medal collection with Stephen Colbert after your wins.

“It’s always a distraction, but there’s always going to be distractions,” Vonn says. “At the end of the day, you have to be able to perform as an athlete.

You have to be able to say for yourself, ‘If I do this interview, is it going to disturb me? Or distract me?

Then I’m not going to do it.’ ” In the off-season, though, Vonn can pursue as many extracurricular activities as she wants. She made her acting debut in the 2010 series finale of her favorite TV show, “Law & Order,” playing a secretary who slips a vital clue to investigators tracking down a suspect in a school-shooting plot. “When they asked me to be on the show, I was hyperventilating. I was just superexcited and giddy,” she says. “They’re like, ‘OK, Lindsey, you can’t smile in every scene. It’s serious.’ ” Wearing glasses and outside of her ski gear—she’s costumed in a truly unfortunate, pastel-colored sweater set—Vonn is almost unrecognizable in her cameo on the show. Good, she says. “Yeah, I thought I looked like a tool,” she says. “I don’t like watching myself on TV. Skiing is one thing, but I don’t know. I feel like my voice sounds really funny. It’s one of those weird self-image things I have. I watched it, but just once. That was all I had to do. That was enough.”

So blowing off the slopes for acting isn’t in Vonn’s immediate future, although the red-carpet appearances will continue. At Nickelodeon’s 2011 Kids’ Choice Awards—known for dumping buckets of green slime on winners in a nice televised projection of what everyone really wants to do to the popular kids in high school—Vonn won Favorite Female Athlete over Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Danica Patrick. “Kids are intrigued by Lindsey because she is beautiful enough to be a model, she’s a champion athlete, and a fierce competitor—a somewhat rare combination,” says Ellen Rydzewski, vice president of celebrity talent at Nickelodeon.

For her part, Vonn was shocked she won. “I was high-fiving these kids as I was walking up on stage, and they were all slimy and were grabbing my hands to get slime on me as much as they could,” she says.

“I got up on stage, and I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t think I was going to win, first of all, and then I was slimy. I guess I kind of thought because the Kids’ Choice Awards are a pretty mainstream type of event, I didn’t really think anybody would know who I was.”

Vonn pauses and laughs as the entourage around her—a makeup artist, two stylists, and two videographers—roll their eyes. “I don’t know! I guess I’m naive sometimes,” she says. And with that, she stands up, heads to a rack of clothes, and picks out a gold sequined dress for her next photo shoot.

More on skiing’s golden girl at: www.lindseyvonn.com

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Robbie Maddison in the lead-up to his 2008 New Year's jump up and off the Arc de Triomphe in Las Vegas: �I looked over the edge and my knees buckled. I dropped and caught myself."

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photography: Christian pondella/red bull Content pool Credit

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the edge of fear

Daredevils Levi LaVallee and Robbie Maddison have crafted careers out of attempting the impossible. But their feats of derring-do exact a brutal physical and mental toll. A look inside their minds as they prepare for their biggest jumps yet.

Words: Ann Donahue

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evi laVallee definitely remembers putting on his gear. the snowmobiler is pretty sure he ran through his normal checklist while attempting a distance jump, because it’s a ticktock he does by instinct: study the crosswinds, focus on the ramp, ready the brake in case the nose of the sled kicks up. but the next thing he truly remembers is waking up in the hospital with tubes in both of his collapsed lungs, a broken pelvis, a concussion, cracked ribs, three fractured vertebrae, and his family hovering by his bedside. it was three days later. during practice for the 2010 red bull: new year. no limits. event, laVallee set the world record for a distance jump on a snowmobile: 361 feet. later that night, he attempted another practice run—this time, the carburetor glitched out, sending him tumbling several hundred feet at over 100 mph. the sled slammed into the ramp, then ricocheted 200 feet in the air before landing. this year, laVallee is back to attempt

the jump again, alongside red bull: new year. no limits. veteran robbie Maddison, who is currently recovering from a crash during red bull X-Fighters practice that busted a disc in his back, punctured his lung, and gave him his second concussion in three months.

Maddison will be going for his own distance record—400 feet—on his motorcycle as the two riders jump concurrently over the embarcadero on san diego’s waterfront. the event will air live on the evening of dec. 31 on espn. it may seem like madness for two busted-up guys to try and reset their own world records—but as many observers may suspect, daredevils like Maddison and laVallee are wired a bit differently. “it’s more painful for most of them to walk away from an experience than to go for it and endure physical pain,” says psychologist Michael gervais, a specialist in high-performance sports. “the emotional and psychological pain of walking away—of being small—is greater than the physical pain that might come. so, they plan well, and they go.” the planning for these feats takes the

form of both the practical—testing their equipment under similar conditions; participating in endless consultations with gear manufacturers about safety; and working through the back-to-thebasics problems of math and physics— and also the metaphysical. to conquer the anxiety that could otherwise cripple their new year’s attempt, laVallee, 29, and Maddison, 30, have both incorporated mental disciplines into their preparations. laVallee is a techie—he adheres to “brain training,” a form of mental-imagery exercises that are tracked for efficacy by monitoring the blood flow to his brain—while Maddison has taken a more spiritual approach. through these practices, they’ve both learned to control their fear, but not to completely eradicate it. though their feats may be superhuman, they are, after all, still human. “i just look at it like, ‘i’m capable of doing this. i enjoy doing this. i just want to have fun doing this.’ this is going to be really cool,” laVallee hesitates for a split second. “If it works, this is going to be really cool.”

photography: joe treleVen (2), garth Millan/red bull Content pool

Busted, but not broken: Levi LaVallee (below) and Robbie Maddison (right).

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Robbie Maddison’s approach to his craft is a mixture of the analytical and the spiritual. His long-distance jumps are math problems that need to be solved (Speed + Ramp Angle = Success).

His nerves ahead of the feats— such as his Arc de Triomphe jump at the Paris Las Vegas hotel —are soothed by learning to live completely in the moment: “Really, it’s Russian roulette.”

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addison is at his house in temecula, Calif., where he’s set up a freestyle-motocross practice course, complete with olympic pool-size foam-rubber pit, in the front yard. (his property is is so striking it’s a stop on the bus tours that circle the local wineries.) he motions toward one of the ramps at the foam pit. “My very first jump in the morning, it’s a 75-foot jump—and i’ll backflip it because i know the speed,” he says. “For someone who hasn’t hit that ramp, it would take them a month to work up to going that far—starting close, and then moving back. essentially, that’s what we’re doing with these distance jumps.”

Maddison is a modern-day evel Knievel, except he does jumps that would make Knievel spin (or maybe do a backflip) in his grave. originally from Kiama, australia, Maddison started competing in motocross as a kid; after surviving bouts of viral meningitis and viral encephalitis that left him 54

Danger dudes: (top) LaVallee in training at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.; Maddison actually vomited before his Arc jump (above).

temporarily paralyzed, he made his name as one of the top tricksters on the freestyle motocross (FMX) tour. but Maddison’s fame has spread beyond the gearhead world, thanks to his distance jumps, which have garnered millions of views on youtube. his most recent jaw-dropper was in 2010, when he successfully jumped over the Corinth Canal, a greek waterway lined with steep rock walls. “i had a 300-foot-hole under me,” Maddison says. on a lark while prepping for the jump, he spit into the canal from the top of the rock walls; it took 8 seconds for his spit to hit the water.

For Maddison, jumps like the Corinth Canal and his red bull: new year. no limits. endeavors are a math problem, a question of getting comfortable with the feel of the physics as he hurtles through the air: speed + ramp angle = success.

When asked if he was spooked about the possibility of crashing onto the boulders along san diego’s harbor during red

photography: MarV Watson/red bull Content pool, Christian pondella/red bull Content pool joe treleVen, garth Milan/red bull Content pool (2)

“I feel maybe not completely comfortable, but I’m confident.”

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Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.

History 2007 Robbie Maddison’s bike jumps 322 feet over a Las Vegas football field.

2008 Maddison jumps up—and off—the 96-foot-tall Arc De Triomphe at Paris Las Vegas on his motorcycle.

Rhys Millen attempts to backflip an off-road truck; he bounces on the landing and rolls the vehicle.

2009

Travis Pastrana jumps his rally car 269 feet onto a barge at Rainbow Harbor, Long Beach, Calif. (below).

bull: new year. no limits., Maddison says: “that doesn’t freak me out too much, because i’m planning to land on the other side.” but reaching the right solution to that math problem is so nerve-wrangling it made Maddison physically sick. in the buildup to jumping—and dropping off— the 10 stories of the arc de triomphe at the paris las Vegas hotel in 2008, he vomited during training. “the first time i walked up to the tower and looked over the edge, my knees buckled, and i dropped and caught myself,” he says. “and then my stomach— ugh. it wasn’t like a huge throwing up or anything, but i was ill—stuff was coming up instead of going down.” to quiet his mind before the arc jump, Maddison started reading about meditation, specifically “the book of understanding” by buddhist monk osho and “the art of power” by the ludlow mystic thich nhat hanh. “you have to be 100 percent present, so your attention is

2010 Levi LaVallee attempts to break his 361-foot snowmobile distance-jump record; he crashes during practice, postponing the event until 2011. He keeps the crashed snowmobile (left) in his workshop as a reminder.

2011 Together, LaVallee (on his snowmobile) and Maddison (on his motorcycle) are aiming to do a concurrent jump over San Diego’s harbor. LaVallee’s goal is to top his 361-foot world record; Maddison’s desire is to break his world record with a 400-foot jump.

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right there in front of you,” he says. “you’re aware of the sound of the bike, the feeling of your hand on the grips, the feeling of your feet touching the bike, the wind in your face. you’re watching the trees blowing,” Maddison adds. “you’re present, like a cat watching a mouse. and it’s that mindset that allows you to make that quick, last-second change, and recover from what may be a crash.” even with studied concentration, he acknowledges that things could go wrong. “you don’t have control of the engine,” Maddison says. “that’s my biggest fear— something going wrong mechanically.”

From the porch of his house, he looks out over the landscaped expanse of carefully engineered ramps in his front yard—evidence of a comfortable life made possible by uncomfortable feats. “really,” Maddison says,“it’s russian roulette.”

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n his workshop in the backyard of his parents’ house in longville, Minn.—population 108—laVallee is surrounded by the detritus of his crash: the boot that was ripped off, the shredded helmet, the snowmobile with a crumpled front end, which is so battered from impact that a gentle tug will remove it entirely. For laVallee, these are reminders of what he went through in setting the world record, and they steel his resolve to make another attempt. “i watch the video of the crash now, and it’s like the scariest movie you’ve ever seen,” he says. “but what i’ve been pre-planting in my mind for a little while is going to san diego and being like, ‘you know how to do this. you’re capable of doing this.’ ” For someone who has been through so much trauma and pain recently, it’s amazing how ebullient laVallee is—he takes his home state’s “Minnesota nice” reputation to another level. his sporting feats have made him a local hero, and he hosts workouts on his parents’ property several times a week, where over 30 people—that is, one third of the entire town—show up to train alongside him. as a kid, laVallee snowmobiled to school in the winter—and after goofing around with a radar gun one day, he figured out that he could go pretty fast. at 12, he was beating 20-somethings in local competitions; he turned pro as a racer at 17, and has since racked up seven Winter X games gold medals, including four golds. and then the stunt bug bit. in 2009, he attempted a double backflip during X games; he completed both rotations, but 56

just missed landing the trick by an inch.

When the chance to do red bull: new year. no limits. came up, he leaped at the opportunity—and then crashed. “it was pretty disappointing, going from being able to do the biggest thing of your career on the biggest stage possible, and then all of a sudden it doesn’t happen,” he says. as part of his three-month recuperation, laVallee underwent a brain scan to determine the extent of his concussion. “We did some initial tests and they’re like, ‘uh, did you hit your head on the left side once?’ and i’m like, ‘i’m pretty sure i hit it everywhere,’ ” he says. to remedy the damage, laVallee started using portable brain-training technology developed by neurotopia.

While wearing a skull cap that measures blood flow to his brain, laVallee plays video games that target and enhance activity in specific regions by thinking. there is no controller; when the athlete concentrates, the centerpiece of the game—usually a race car—moves at a pace that correlates with the intensity of focus. the deeper the concentration, the faster the car. “at first i was like, ‘What? really?

We’re racing cars? We’re in a space shuttle flying through a tunnel? is this a joke?’ ” laVallee says. “but then i started to do it more, and you start to see results, and you’re like, oK, this makes sense. you can’t really do push-ups with your brain, you know.” but there was an

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(Clockwise) Maddison’s MRI; both LaVallee and Maddison underwent Neurotopia’s EEG mapping; Maddison takes a moment before a jump.

“i’ve got the best people, the best equipment, the best of everything—and i know i can do this,” he says. “i feel maybe not completely comfortable, but i’m confident. you can be the toughest dude on earth, and you’re still going to be like, ‘i’m a little nervous.’ ”

photography: Chris tredesCo/red bull Content pool, MinK radiology, garrett bray (2)

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unexpected benefit with the brain training. laVallee noticed improvements in his fogginess from his concussion, but also in his concentration and his ability to make split-second decisions. as it turns out, laVallee’s brain training will reduce his stress going into the event, says neurotopia Ceo bryan hixson, by teaching him how to return to a calm mental state before the jump. “you

“You’re trying to get your brain to this optimum where it’s the most focused.”

don’t want them to be really hot, going in and burning tons of energy, using oxygen and nutrients prior to the sport because they’re nervous about it,” he says. “you’re trying to get your brain to this optimum spot where it’s the most focused,” laVallee says. “over time, it’s basically like a light switch. you can flip it on and be ‘oh! super focused!’ then ‘oh! i’m having fun! giggly! ha ha!’ then ‘oh! super focused!’ ” For laVallee, the brain training is part of his perfectionist tendencies— when you have just one shot at a jump, you take advantage of every single performance you can get. this quality of thoroughness gives him the confidence that diminishes his fear.

o what compels extreme-sports athletes to go to these, well, extremes? Why don’t Maddison and laVallee—both current world-record holders for distance jumps in their disciplines—just retire and enjoy comfortable bucolic lives as family men?

Maddison is married, with a 1-year-old son, Kruz, and laVallee is marrying his longtime girlfriend, Kristen, in May. the simple answer is that it doesn’t occur to them to quit. laVallee is eager to measure up to his heroes—like Maddison and travis pastrana. “Who on earth would do the crazy things travis pastrana does?” laVallee asks. “it’s like, ‘oh, going to work today, going to double backflip this. then i’m going to go race cars. all right. no big deal.’ you’ve got to be mentally strong and control your emotions, and push the fear off to the side. that’s what’s intriguing.” and Maddison believes he’s serving a higher purpose with his attempts. “i got to that point of realizing that my mind is the only thing that’s controlling whether or not i was going to be able to do this,” he says. “i believe in being able to turn your mind off and steer away from all the falsities in life, the materialistic kind of world that conditions us and governs us… if you’re coming up to the ramp like, ‘i can’t wait to get that paycheck!’, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.” because of the danger of the red bull: new year. no limits. jump, it is unlikely that laVallee and Maddison will practice it together at their target distances before the big night—but no worries, Maddison has innate confidence in laVallee. “i think he’s an amazing athlete,” he says. “that crash he came back from last year? i hope that situation doesn’t happen, because i don’t think my body could handle that.”

For his part, laVallee isn’t worried that he’ll be distracted by Maddison flying beside him on a motorcycle. “When we were practicing last year, we had a helicopter following me the whole time, so i think it will be all right,” he says.

“With Maddo jumping with me, it’ll make a better show. plus, it will be pretty cool high-fiving him afterwards and saying, ‘dude, that was pretty sick, man.’ ”

Live streaming of the Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. is from 8 p.m. PST on Dec. 31 at redbull.tv

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Sails Like Teen Spirit Just after Christmas, an 18-year-old girl will lead a crew of teens into the world’s deadliest boat race. Vicious squalls, choppy seas, and injuries are the norm for Jessica Watson, the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

additional photography: action press

Words: Vanessa Murray portraits: richie hopson

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There are few stretches as treacherous as the 630 nautical miles (724.9 land miles) between sydney and hobart, tasmania that are raced every year on december 26. gale-force storms —known as “southerly busters”—hurtle across the Bass strait, making the sea choppy and challenging. in 1998, six sailors lost their lives. six years later, only 59 of the 116 starters completed the race. “the competition is very close and very competitive,” says Jessica Watson. “on top of the competition, the race is infamous for its challenging weather conditions. it’s going to be tough, and it could be dangerous, but we’re doing it because we want a challenge. We know what we’re taking on.”

Coming as they do from an 18-year-old skippering the youngest crew to compete in the 66-year-old race, those words might be mistaken for youthful hubris. But Jessica Watson is no normal youth. on may 15, 2010, at only 16, she sailed into sydney harbour after completing a solo unassisted circumnavigation of the globe, the youngest person ever to do so. she was lauded by australia’s then-prime minister, Kevin rudd, and this year was crowned young australian of the year. her 2010 book, “true spirit,” was a bestseller, and she’s spoken to crowds of 10,000. so what qualifies her and her crew for a race as notoriously tough as this?

“We might be young, but we’re very experienced,” says Watson. “on the crew are two solo round-the-world sailors, four rolex Fastnet competitors [the european equivalent of the rolex sydney hobart yacht race], and two sailors who crewed in the 2010 sydney–hobart and a multitude of smaller races—and that’s just in the past 12 months.” since the beginning of october, Watson and her crew of nine sailors—hailing from all over australia and the U.K., with an average age of 19—have been working on team building and leadership, problem solving, emergency planning, media, and brand-management training. they have also spent more than 300 hours at sea. the crew first set sail in the relatively calm conditions around pittwater on australia’s east Coast, honing their sailing, maneuvering, boat speed, and offshore skills in their boat—a maxi [100-foot] yacht, christened Ella Baché another Challenge. offshore sessions to prepare them for the shifting wind and weather conditions followed that. in november, they sailed from sydney to hobart and back, and they also spent a week sailing in the storm Bay and derwent areas. there, explains crew co-coach Jonno Bannister, “the race can be won or lost.” “they’ve spent a solid month out in the conditions, which has helped them with strategy and navigation, and it has given them experience as a team on that boat, in those waters,” says Bannister, who will compete against Ella Baché

Above: A plane welcomes Australian Jessica Watson into Sydney Harbour on May 15, 2010 as she becomes the youngest sailor to circumnavigate nonstop and unassisted around the world.

The then-16-year-old took 210 days to complete her mission, having set off on October 18, 2009.

Opposite: Still just 18, Watson has already released her own book charting her adventures.

She’s now a national celebrity, and was named Young Australian of the Year in 2010.

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another Challenge along with co-coach Chris lewin in the actual race. not only have they been spending all day every day training together, the crew live together, too. “We’re taking this seriously, but the team dynamic is great, and we’re having a lot of fun, too!” says Watson. “When we get home at the end of the day, we’re usually pretty exhausted, but we always eat together—we pair up and take turns cooking for everyone.”

When the first breezes fill the racers’ sails on dec. 26, Watson and her crew will set out from sydney harbour to sail down the southeast coast of australia to Cape howe. they’ll cross the Bass strait, skirt tasmania, and enter storm Bay before finishing at Battery point—if they finish. “at its simplest, the sydney–hobart is four incredibly challenging days that you not only have to get through, but also have to maximize the boat’s performance with the skills and efforts of nine other people,” says lewin, who’s skippered a boat in four sydney–hobart races, including the notoriously tough 2004 race. “Jessica and her crew are stepping into a very competitive division of one of the premier yacht races in the world.” he describes Watson as “fantastic” to work with: “she has her strengths and weaknesses, which is good, as it gives me a job to do. But ultimately, she is very self-aware, eager to learn, and genuine.”

When she completed her solo circumnavigation after 210 days at sea, Watson was three days shy of her 17th birthday. it made her the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop, and unassisted around the world—although she doesn’t hold an official record, since the World sailing speed record Council (WssrC) doesn’t acknowledge records set by sailors under 18 because it’s too dangerous. so is the crew’s average age of 19 an advantage or a liability? “their youth is a strength,” says Bannister. “We’ve got a group of fit, enthusiastic people that have gone through a structured training plan that’s left them as prepared—if not more prepared—than anyone else in the race.” like many eager sailors, Watson grew up watching the start of the sydney– hobart race with her family on tV. Julie and roger Watson weren’t typical parents to Jessica and her siblings, elder sister emily, younger brother tom, and younger sister hannah—Watson was only 8 years old the first time she sailed. and after attending a sailing camp on australia’s gold Coast, she and her siblings moved on to weekend classes and club racing.

But it wasn’t love at first tack. “i was frightened to be out on the water and so

additional photography: getty images

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“Sailing iSn’t about Strength— it’S all about knowledge.”

Having already sailed her 34-foot yacht, Pink Lady, around the world in record time on her own, Jessica Watson is now set to skipper the youngest crew ever to take part in the notoriously difficult Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. With an average age of just 19, Watson and her crew of nine will set off in a 100-foot maxi yacht from Australia’s East Coast on December 26. Some say the crew are too young for such a demanding voyage, but coach Jonno Bannister disagrees. “Their youth is a strength,” he says.

“We’ve got a group of fit, enthusiastic people that are as prepared—if not more prepared— than anyone else in the race.”

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additional photography: aCtion images, rex FeatUres, getty images (3), pa

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far from shore,” recalls Watson in her book. “But i didn’t want to be left on the beach, waiting for everyone to come back bragging about a race. i wanted to be in the thick of it.” as she got better at sailing, her confidence increased, and she began enjoying it more. her family enjoyed it too—so much so that in 2004, her parents sold their real-estate business and bought a 52-foot motorboat called Home Abroad that became just that: home. For the next 5 1/2 years, the Watsons cruised up and down australia’s east Coast. the children were homeschooled, and they all had chores on the boat. “this new life gave us kids amazing freedom,” says Watson. “We’d stop at islands where we’d be the only boat in the anchorage. We’d swim, snorkel, collect shells, and explore beaches and islands.” reading solo sailor Jesse martin’s memoir, “lionheart: a Journey of the human spirit,” at the age of 11 inspired Watson to pursue her own solo navigation of the world. “it wasn’t so much the action-packed nature of it that appealed to me. it wasn’t the thought of knockdowns and big waves—it was all about putting a plan in place and getting the details right. to me,” she continues, reflecting on her many years of meticulous preparation for her journey, “sailing isn’t about strength, it’s all about knowledge.”

Watson’s remarkable teenage odyssey went ahead with the support of her parents, adventurer don mcintyre, other solo sailors like tom mowbray, and high-profile figures such as richard Branson. “she’s 16, she’s not a baby any more,” the entrepreneur quipped on a visit to Brisbane in september 2009, when Watson and her parents were being heavily criticized for her plans. (around the same time, a dutch court had forbid 15-year-old laura dekker from her own solo-circumnavigation attempt.) “i left school at 15 and started my own business, and at 16, you’re pretty grown up,” said Branson. “she should go for it. and you know it’s risky—it’s risky walking over the road, it’s risky in cars, risky on motorbikes, risky on bicycles. it’s far safer sailing around the world. she’ll have the adventure of a lifetime.”

Watson’s 210 days on Ella’s Pink Lady were both an unparalleled adventure and a grueling test. “there were some tough days out at sea,” she admits, “like the storm in the atlantic where Ella’s Pink Lady was rolled upside down four times.” she survived with just minor damage to her boat and the conviction that she could cope with anything—which is just

out on their own The digital age has produced a generation of tech-savvy millennials more interested in a quick download than a hard grind. But there are exceptions. Below, four teens who joined Watson in making headlines for their around-the-world solo attempts.

Zac Sunderland, 20 (u.S.a.)

Port of departure: Marina del Rey, Calif.

June 14, 2008–July 16, 2009 Spending most of his childhood on a boat was enough preparation for Sunderland. He set off just after his 16th birthday on The Intrepid, and became the thenyoungest person to circumnavigate the globe solo (with stops), sailing 27,500 nautical miles (31,646 land miles) in 13 months. The U.K.’s Mike Perham beat his record a month later.

Mike PerhaM, 19 (u.k.)

Port of departure: Portsmouth, U.K. November 18, 2008–August 27, 2009 Two months after Sunderland finished in California, Perham—younger by a few months—arrived in Portsmouth to claim bragging rights back from him.

Perham had a brutal journey aboard the 40-foot Totallymoney.com, traveling 28,000 nautical miles (32,221 land miles) in nine months, with a stop or two for repairs.

On one of those stops, in Cape Town, he briefly met Sunderland, who was sailing in the other direction. Perham is still officially the youngest person to sail around the world.

abby Sunderland, 18 (u.S.a.)

Port of departure: Marina del Rey, Calif.

January 23, 2010–June 12, 2010 (broken off) Sibling rivalry might be one explanation for Sunderland’s solo attempt, but it may also have been Perham beating her brother’s record that motivated the then-16-year-old. Abby made it as far as the Indian Ocean, where her boat rolled 360 degrees, and she lost radio and satellite-phone contact. She was discovered by an Australian search plane and rescued by a French commercial boat two days later. She has since written a book (“Unsinkable”) about it.

laura dekker, 16 (n.l.)

Port of departure: Gibraltar August 21, 2010–still at sea The Dutch teen’s attempt has been defined as much by courtrooms as open water. Dutch welfare officials tried to stop her, even limiting her parents’ custody of their daughter, claiming she was too young for the voyage at 13. Despondent, Dekker pondered suicide. Eventually, the courts relented. She set sail in the 38-foot Guppy, vowing never to return to Holland. Her voyage has been hit by repair issues, but she’s now sailing her final (and most treacherous) passage across the Indian Ocean.

as well, as the sydney–hobart race is one of the world’s toughest. this year, about 100 teams from around the world are expected to enter, including the current record holder, the australian-owned and skippered Wild Oats XI, which crossed the line after one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes, and 10 seconds in 2005. “the length of the race will vary depending on weather conditions, but it’ll most likely take around four days,” says Watson. “it might not sound like a lot compared to the 210 days i spent at sea on the around-the-world voyage, but they are going to be four very intense days.”

Watson is passionate about inspiring and empowering young people to achieve their potential and become active participants in their own futures, even going so far as to kick-start an online debate about lowering australia’s parliamentary voting age from 18 to 16. she has acted as an ambassador for the australian youth Climate Change Coalition, which helps give young people a voice on climate change. “it bugs me that climate change is something that is going to affect our future,” says Watson. “yet it’s the older generation that chooses how the issue is tackled or not tackled.” in June 2011, Watson was named as a youth representative for the U.n.’s World Food program. “this is a wonderful opportunity for me to help young people in countries not as well off as us,” said Watson at the time. “i want to help them achieve their dreams by ensuring they get the basic necessity of a meal every day.”

Come race day, the crew’s biggest challenge is going to be refining their boat speed, Bannister reckons. “When they get tired, they need to till having that last 5 percent of reserve energy to optimize the boat and everything they can do on it— that’s a challenge for every boat.”

Bannister and lewin admit that after the first three weeks of training, they went back to their own crew and told them they’d better step it up. “these guys are going to be pretty competitive; we need to be on our game to be in with a chance of beating them,” says Bannister.

Watson herself is feeling positive about the race—whatever the outcome. “i’d rather be sailing than anywhere else,” she says. “i love the challenge of making decisions and overcoming problems. it will be great fun—the crew is such a dynamic and likable bunch. nothing inspires me more than people who stand up and say, ‘yes, we can do anything!’ you don’t have to be anyone special to achieve incredible things.” www.jessicawatson.com.au

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Restless ?uest

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From managing his daddy’s doowop group to leading the band on “Jimmy Fallon,” Amir “?uestlove” Thompson’s career has been as much about endurance as about talent. “The Roots” leader on fatherly expectations and sating a very particular addiction.

Words: Adrian Schraeder Photography: Sebastien Agnetti

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“ No one has the chill to just drift under the mainstream for so long.�

?

uestlove turned 40 this year, a fact that’s hard to imagine considering how long the man and his (can we say iconic?)

Afro have been around the music game.

The leader and skilled drummer of hiphop’s undeniably best live act might have only recently slipped into the mainstream once The Roots took up residency at “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” but his reputation in the hip-hop community is as entrenched as his devotion to the genre he and The Roots’ have enjoyed bending and expanding since they formed in 1987.

DJ, hip-hop historian, musical percussion archivist, Obama campaign worker, and storyteller—?uestlove’s many roles are the result of a restless mind.

Recently, several strains converged in his tribute to the political history and influential sounds of African music as part of the Red Bull Music Academy World Tour. Featuring his high school friend and longtime Roots collaborator MC Black Thought—plus Amp Fiddler, Macy Gray, and Afrobeat innovator Tony Allen—at the October show at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris, ?uestlove offered up a reinterpretation of African icon Fela Kuti’s music on a stage packed with the people he respects the most.

This month saw the release of The Roots’ 13th album, “Undun.”

Red Bulletin: You’ve got many passions—is there one that’s most important to you? ?uestlove: My manager always jokes that the only reason I kept The Roots going for so long is ’cause this helps me feed my record-collecting habit. He sees me more as a record collector that just happens to be ?uestlove on the side.

Is he right?

(Laughs.) Maybe to a certain extent. I mean, it’s true that I’m addicted to collecting records. I have about 50,000 records at home. And my huge collection doesn’t stop me from buying my favorite records over and over again. I think I own about 20 copies of “Critical Beatdown” by Ultramagnetic MC’s.

You’re also a technically skilled DJ who flits from swing to R & B, pop, and hiphop. Do you remember your first time behind the decks?

Yeah! That was at some club in West Virginia, when I was about 10 years old.

How did that come about?

Well, my parents had a nightclub act.

My father was in a doo-wop group [Lee Andrews & the Hearts] that had some hits in the ’50s and ’60s. He had me interning every summer for his show since I was 7.

By the time I was 14, I knew how to iron

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SWITCHING IT UP Considering their status as underground royalty, The Roots’ move to “Jimmy Fallon” was quite a departure. But they weren’t the first to change their tune.

Words: Nick Amies ClAssiC MetAlliCA Almost a decade before the rock behemoths employed a therapist to exorcise their demons, Metallica sought peace by hooking up with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and U.S. conductor Michael Kamen for “S&M” in 1999.

The orchestral live reworking of the band’s hits was a hit—but it helped create Finnish classical rockers Apocalyptica, so it wasn’t all good.

Air MAideN Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson spent most of the past 30 years steering a metal monstrosity around the world, so piloting a jet liner must have seemed a logical next step. He became a qualified pilot in the 1990s, and has clocked up over 7,000 hours on commercial jets and Maiden’s own Boeing 757, known as Ed Force One. Oh, he also writes children’s books. riNgo v. thoMAs the tANk The reformed hellraiser and former Beatle wasn’t rated for his vocal contributions during his Fab Four days, but his droning tones were perfect for ’80s children’s TV show “Thomas the Tank Engine.” Despite (or because) it was recorded during his fight with alcohol addiction, Ringo’s lackadaisical narration complemented the chugging steam engines’ pace perfectly. eltoN JohN: WeddiNg siNger Rush Limbaugh has few friends in the gay community, thanks to his outspoken views on homosexuality. So it was quite a shock when he asked Elton John to perform at his 2010 wedding—and even more surprising when John accepted. Some say the reported $1 million he received to play for Limbaugh’s 400 guests was the reason, but John said he hoped Limbaugh would change his attitude. Good luck with that.

the wardrobe, how to pack the instruments, how to set up the light equipment. When I was 12, I was my father’s production manager. I’d go three hours early, set the light, talk to the manager, all of that. I really saw and learned a lot. He showed me the ropes of all aspects of the music business, especially behind the scenes—and all of this at a very young age.

And the DJ thing?

Well, in ’81, I was my father’s light technician. In between shows, they would run tapes. But there were turntables there. So I decided to bring some records from home and spin them. That was my first official gig.

And now you’re the band leader on “Jimmy Fallon,” and you’re masterminding concerts like the Red Bull Music Academy night. Is that a natural progression?

Yes, I think it is. But no one has the patience to go through that. Especially not in hip-hop. Rap cats ask me all the time: “Yo man, I can spit! Here’s my demo. Put me on! Take me on tour with you!”—they just think it’s that easy.

What’s it like in reality?

You have to have an infinite amount of patience in order to survive in this business that I’m in. And that’s just show business—I’m not even trying to talk about hip-hop. We were rejected for more than half a decade before we got a record deal. I waited eight years to get my first car. We waited 22 years to get our first seven-figure check. No one told me at the age of 18 that I would have to become 40 to be financially comfortable. If you’re not prepared to be this patient, then you’re not ready.

For over a decade, The Roots played more than 170 shows per year. Where did all the money go?

Even more! In between 2001 and 2005, we played over 220 shows a year. The reason why we had to play so many shows was just so that we could keep our heads above water. We never had a hit record in all these years. And to constantly live on the road is very expensive—you gotta have two tour buses; you gotta pay for 15 hotel rooms; you gotta pay for the flights.

And at home, your bills are piling up. I mean, we lived comfortable, but not in a luxurious type of way. We were not balling, if you know what I mean. What I’m saying is: no one has the chill to just drift under the mainstream for so long.

Could you have done all the things you’re doing today 20 years ago?

My father always wanted me to play with big ensembles. He paid for my education, and expected me to pursue a serious career in music. Instead, I started a rap group with my friend from art class. It took him a long time to forgive me for that.

How long?

Let’s say it like this: I bought my parents’ house long before I bought my own house—just to show him that I’m actually making money. www.redbullmusicacademy.com

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the long way

home Stephen Redmond has one goal in life: to be the first swimmer to conquer the infamous Ocean’s Seven of the world. With three already done, Redmond battled the channel separating Los Angeles and Catalina Island. He had no idea it would be the toughest swim of his life.

Words: Nicolas Stecher Photography: Chris Baldwin

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othing is going according to plan.

It is 5:57 a.m. on the frosty morning of October 20th, 2011, and a vile retching can suddenly be heard bellowing out from the starboard side of our boat—a sound not unlike the primal scream a gutted hyena might make. It is a howl that summons all, from the insides of the boat to the railing. From a distance of about 131 feet away in the pitch-black night, you can see open-water swimmer Stephen Redmond projectile vomiting what looks like the contents of a 3” fire hose on blast. It is a nasty sight: his jaw unlocks violently like a transforming werewolf from a 1980s horror film. This is not what you want happening only 4 hours into an expected 13-hour swim. Near Redmond, seasoned marathon swimmer and official observer Forrest Davis lies flat on a paddleboard 68

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dedicated his life to the salty seas.

As he starts playing, the melancholy tones ring out over the water to the lone figure swimming slowly, methodically, relentlessly. The skipper may have hoped for the desired effect of welcoming the morning and infusing his swimmer with a regained fortitude, but the results are decidedly different.

“I wanna get out! Pull me outta the water, you bloody bastards!” yells Redmond, now only a couple of feet from the side of the boat. He’s swum over, and he is pissed, foul, and exhausted. “I’ve never called it before, but this time, I’m callin’ it!”

“We’re not lettin’ ya in!” retorts Anthony, Redmond’s younger brother and official feeder.

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ocean’s seven swimming the english Channel is sooo 20th Century. so, open-water guru steven Munatones came up with something a bit more challenging—actually, a lot more challenging. redmond, who has done four, wants to be the first to do all seven.

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1 IrIsh Channel Straits of Moyle, ca. 22 miles Done: 8/31/10, 17 hours, 17 mins.

Water temp.: 54°F “Attacked by box jellyfish for nine hours.” One of only 14 to swim it.

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pacIfIc ocean Hakodate

sea of Japan H o aomori nSH u 100 km

2 englIsh Channel England–France 21 miles Done: 8/2/09, 20 hours.

Water temp.: 57°F “My wife, Ann, sang to me during the swim.” He also lost 15 lbs.

4 sTraIT of gIbralTar Gibraltar 8 miles Done: 5/8/11, 5 hours.

Water temp.: 62°F “Swell so large, I could not see boat or land through waves.”

6 Tsugaru sTraIT Northern Japan 12.5 miles Done? Not yet.

Water temp.: 65°F Known for its fast currents from the west to east, so it‘s best swum at a very quick pace.

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3 Cook sTraIT New Zealand 26 miles Done? Not yet.

Water temp.: 61°F Areas of ice water, tidal flows, and pods of jellyfish. One in six swimmers encounters sharks.

5 MolokaI Channel Hawaii 26 miles Done? Broke off.

10/25/11 Water temp: 75°F “Waves as high as buses, they couldn‘t see me over the water.”

7 CaTalIna Channel California 21 miles Done: 10/20/11 12 hours, 40 min.

Water temp: 60F “The hardest swim of my life.” Known for fast currents and sharks.

kEN uLRICH

“he’s just being a bitch,” says brother anthony.

“It’s my call, and I’m callin’ it. I always finish, but this time it’s for real—I’m callin’ it!” barks Redmond angrily in his rough Irish brogue, complaining about severe stomach cramping and a sore shoulder. He appears stunned—punch drunk—as he hurls an expletive or two at his sibling, who won’t budge.

His brother turns to us with a halfcocked smile, and says, “He’s just being a bitch.” Anthony’s trying to be light, but you can see he’s concerned. Redmond has by now been treading water for 10 minutes without swimming, a lifetime in a sport where half a degree of bodytemperature loss can spell doom.

The drama is steady. There’s no panic, but there’s sincere anxiety—not enough to pull his brother into the boat, but enough to know that if Redmond keeps allowing himself to wallow down that mental path of despair, the crossing is over with.

Of course, if he really wanted out, all Redmond would have to do is touch the boat and the swim’s done—the protocol to open-water swimming is a strictly enforced, strictly observed rigmarole.

Then something happens. Anthony converses in hushed tones to Davis, who’s in the water on the paddleboard, and Davis swims over to Redmond and

n IS or la tH n d

whispering words of encouragement, trying to steer Redmond back in motion.

After two minutes, Redmond has collected himself. Without a word, he again begins his breaststroke, slowly, methodically, relentlessly moving—the steady slap of his massive arms smacking against the water, sloshing ever forward.

Off in the distance, Los Angeles isn’t a line or bright light, but rather a faint glow of a city shining up into the cloud cover from the black nothing of the sea. The City of Angels looks far.

Half an hour later, light has broken over the horizon, and the sky is an inclement, soft blue-gray. The skipper, Greg Elliot, emerges from the bowels of his boat with a cumbersome sack of plaid bagpipes wrapped around his body, and ascends to the bridge overlooking the wide deck of his 63-foot vessel, the Bottom Scratcher. It’s a tradition: every sunrise, Elliot rises to the top of the 42-year-old, purpose-built diving boat, and plays the bagpipes to welcome the morning and motivate his crew.

Eliot’s appearance is somewhere between Blue from “Old School” and the weathered Sea Captain from “The Simpsons”—in other words, he’s exactly what you’d expect from one who’s

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whispers in his ear. It is bizarre.

Redmond gains a sort of clarity in his eyes that had acquired the lost swirl of a concussion. “Gimme some chocolates, and a sweet tea!” he orders. Quickly, the hot tea is sequestered and lowered to Steve, and a Milky Way is ripped from its wrapper and tossed toward him. It falls in the water.

Redmond dives out of sight to fish it out, surfaces, and stuffs the small, wet chocolate into his mouth—and without even grabbing his tea to wash it down, he once again strokes forward toward L.A., slowly, methodically, relentlessly sloshing on his long trek across the lonely channel.

From the boat, everyone cheers and hollers. It is a small step, a critical victory.

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ery few human beings could put themselves through the physical torment, mental hazing, and terminal fatigue that Redmond is withstanding. You have to put your mind through a Sisyphean ordeal, with your only reward being the sharp rocks of shore under your feet some 20odd miles away.

Redmond isn’t just doing this for only one time, either. He aims to be the first

redmond came very close to giving up.

human to cross the Ocean’s Seven—the open-water marathon-swimmer’s version of the Seven Summits. He has so far conquered three (see sidebar), but he’s not alone in his quest—his hometown in Ireland raised the €3,997 ($5,445) needed for this swim, launching a fundraiser where friends paid for the pleasure of waxing the hair off his chest— local farmers, fisherman, pub owners, shopkeepers—they all paid €50 ($68) per rip. (“I’ve never seen so many happy people in all my life,” Redmond quips dryly). He claims to do it all for his country, but it is clear he draws his strength from a much closer familial well.

The eldest son of Irish pub owners and bartenders, Redmond was born in London and pruned to raise hell from the

crib. He was crap at soccer, so swimming was his only sport from a young age, and he spent several years as a commercial diver off the coast of Scotland, plucking scallops for cash. The man is not only as stout and gnarled as a stubborn stump, he is sharp-witted, loquacious (when he cares to be), and amicable. But you can easily discern the damage he might have done as a young lad.

“For me, the swim’s all guilt, a way of trying to make up for all the s*** you did when you were young. Cause I was such a f***ing crazy bastard, drinking and whoring around, and having fun, and it’s kind of payback time now,” Redmond says. “You realize there isn’t much time; all of a sudden you’re 45, 50, and you haven’t achieved much.”

Epiphany struck at 40 when his wife Ann gave birth to their daughter Siadbh (pronounced “Sive”), now 11.

Redmond stopped drinking, started training, opened up a triathlon club, and tried to focus his substantial energies into more productive endeavors.

“Everybody wants instant gratification; everyone is celebrating mediocrity now. You can sing a song, and all of a sudden you’re a celebrity,” he muses. “But I always find that the

6:52 a.m. redmond, with official observer forrest Davis: “In the water, you don’t talk to anybody but the guy that’s feeding you on the swim. and there’s an invisible umbilical cord between you two.”

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harder you work, the more you get out of something. It’s like building a statue out of salt; [the doubts] can chip away at the mental side of things, and you get very weak and exhausted quickly.”

But watching him treading the water, hour for godless hour, you question his very sanity. At that pivotal moment in his swim, shortly after the pipes were played at dawn, Redmond had nothing left in his gut, no strength. His hours were all over the place; he didn’t know what time it was, day or night. He couldn’t get warm for some reason, and the feeds—critical 1,000-calorie cocktails of protein powder, bananas, and strong Irish tea delivered every 45 minutes like clockwork—weren’t agreeing with his digestive tract.

“Then Forrest just whispered into my ear: ‘Siadbh is thinking of you,’ ” recalls Redmond. “And that was it, just like flipping a switch—you couldn’t really quit, cause you were letting everyone down. I thought, ‘A complete stranger comes over on a boat in the middle of the water in a faraway country and tells you your daughter wouldn’t want you to stop?’

It makes you pause; it becomes a surreal moment in your life.”

He continues: “See, you don’t know—I don’t think anyone knows—much about

12:05 P.m.

More than 12 hours into his swim, redmond had begun to lose it. “I thought it was a spaceman under me!” he said of photographer Chris baldwin.

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“oh stevie boy...” elliot’s bagpipes drone.

pain. None of us. But we don’t know how far we can go either, you know? That’s what we’re testing: how far can we go.”

The near-failure itself seems to be integral to Redmond and his esoteric quest—without touching that edge of failure, that precipice of despair and the very threshold of his abilities, there would be no victory. There would be

no reason. There would be no swim.

“I think people are all looking for some golden happiness, but it doesn’t really exist out there does it? You have to create that yourself. By having all these possessions, it’s not going to make you any happier; it’s all gonna come back down to your family and friends in the end,” says Redmond. “After that, nothing else means much.

“In Ireland, we see it with the economy going down—people are living quieter and concentrating on different things.

Everything comes back to normal, and maybe the swims are my way of figuring out how to get back to normal. Because you go out, then you come back—and you keep going until you can’t go any further. It’s just if you have people on the boat that will keep you going, and that’s all life is in the end.”

In moments of near-failure, Redmond applies a mantra on each hand: Siadbh on one hand, his 7-year-old son Stevie on the other. “Siadbh and Stevie, Siadbh and Stevie, Siadbh and Stevie,” he repeats in a trance, rhythmically pushing his meat cleaver hands through the air. “I know that sounds crazy, but after you get into a rhythm, you kind of feel like you’re only skidding in through the water, like you’re

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1:36 P.m.

“You never think you can finish it, until the last half mile,” redmond says after reaching land.

“You spend three days afterward thinking, ‘Did we really get it done?’ ”

going through a tunnel in a water park, and you actually feel like it’s effortless in the end. It’s the nearest thing to being dead when you’re alive.”

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t is just after 1 p.m. back in the boat, and Redmond is making his final, slow, methodically relentless push to the shore. He looks like a strange, xenomorphic beast—a blubbery, aquatic juggernaut, flabby around his barrel-like stomach, but muscular and enlarged around his massive shoulders and arms. He looks fluorescent white— almost pink—against the dark navy blue of the early-morning water. under his arms to the back shoulder, there’s an even- whiter patch where viscous lanolin is smeared; it’s much less foul-smelling than the goose fat he usually slathers over his body. The overall effect lends him the look of a two-tone porpoise, strangely bonier and fatter in altering places.

Now he’s nearing the coast. Only there is no smooth sandy beach to land on, the rock-filled breaks are numerous and trecherous—two swimmers already cracked ribs this winter. But he fights his way through the thick kelp beds, around the spraying rocks, and after 12.5 hours and 20 miles, he hits ground, and begins

“ It’s a funny sPort. the whole swIm Is just for that one blIndIng second of brIllIance; you couldn’t descrIbe It to anybody.”

making a wobbly ascent to the shore.

Yet he can’t quite stand up—his blood pressure is shot, and his massive, pillarlike legs as shaky as a newborn giraffe’s.

Then he stands. “I never want to see this bloody place ever again,” is the first thing that angrily spills from his mouth.

Redmond flops on board with a loud thud. Thanks to the pallor of his Irish skin, the lanolin smeared across his wide body, and the ample blubber he has built up to survive the cold and dire energy needs of the swim, he looks a bit like a beached manatee (for his cross-channel swims, Redmond’s body fat swells from 10 to 18 percent). He just sits motionless on the deck, a glistening mound of bluish flesh heaving with each shallow breath.

Quickly, the skipper throws a set of thick towels around him, and tries to get him up, but Redmond isn’t moving. “That was the hardest swim I ever swam,” he says, with a protracted sigh that betrays the fatigue in his bones. “I couldn’t get over the current, I really didn’t think we were moving a lot of the time, Christ, everything was hard. The dark....”

Soon Redmond is in the shower, shivering violently as the steaming hot water pours over his body. His head falls heavily into his hands, where it remains as the water cascades over his shortly cropped scalp. He can’t believe he is finished. Clutching his head in his hands, it’s not clear his mind is even in his body at the moment. “I don’t wanna swim again. For a loooong time. I don’t even want to see water; the sooner I get off the boat, the better.” He curses under his breath, muttering something about an “abject hatred of swimming.”

But as rotten as he’s feeling—eyes bloodshot and swollen shut from the brine, stomach empty and knotted, shoulder limp and battered, body convulsing, and muscles in shutdown— there is a sparkle of recognition, even if he’s not totally there to witness it himself.

“It’s a funny kind of sport; that one second touching the rock and everything becomes quite crystal clear. Simple. The whole swim is just for that one blinding second of brilliance; you couldn’t describe it to anybody—the finish,” mumbles Redmond, more to himself than anyone, still in some sort of post-traumatic shock.

“It’s cataclysmic—it’s like a blinding flash in your head that you’ve made this swim. You try to imagine it over and over again, what it’s going to be like, and every one of them is different. You’re hooked into it, and you can’t help yourself—you have to go again.” see: www.dailynews.openwaterswimming.com

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WHEELS OF CHANGE When the nearest hospital in an HIV-wracked country is 25 miles away, it is about the bike. A Zambian caregiver’s journeys and the Chicago charity that makes them happen.

Words: Werner Jessner Photography: Philipp Horak

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This is Susan, 39. She lives in a hut with her mother in Chibundi, 62 miles north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka. With her Buffalo bike, she visits and cares for HIV-positive patients in her area.

To her clients, Susan is an angel on a bike. She provides medicine, but just as importantly, she also provides comfort and someone to talk to.

S

usan lives some way west of Chibombo, up the Great North Road from the Zambian capital of Lusaka. The tarmac-road network out here is nothing but a memory, and the bombed-out gravel tracks have given way to pure savanna. Susan is 39 years old. For the purposes of this article, we will call her—and all the other protagonists—by first name only. Many of the people we come across are severely ill. Some are much closer to death than they are to life.

A gentle little woman with a clear voice, Susan lost her husband many years ago; he is buried in Southern Province.

She is not particularly sentimental about him—after all, her two sons have already come of age. She lives with her mother (also a widower), and together they farm a couple of fields— maize, peanuts, sweet potato, okra—which only the initiated would recognize as such during the dry season. Susan shares a plough with her aunt, who lives with her family in the neighboring mud hut, but they no longer have any working animals. Their two cows are dead—one died when calving; 76

the other choked after eating a plastic bag. Nameless dogs have been the biggest animals on the farm ever since.

Susan’s most valuable possession is a Buffalo bike. It has a steel frame, no gears, and weighs 44 lbs. World Bicycle Relief—an aid organization that provides bikes to home-based community healthcare volunteers—originally loaned her the bike for two years, and after that it became her property.

Originally co-founded in 2005 by Chicago-based bike company SRAM’s vice president Frederick Day as a response to the Indian Ocean tsunami, the organization aims to provide bikes to those who are agents for change in their communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Teachers, caregivers, and students who live far out in the bush—even girls returning to school after their pregnancies—qualify for the bikes, which cost around $134 wholesale (see the Web site for donor information). World Bicycle Relief has distributed more than 50,000 bikes in Zambia alone, and provides training to local mechanics for repair work.

As a caregiver, Susan looks after the sick people in her area, taking them medicine, speaking to them, and transporting them to the hospital—some 25 miles from the village—on her bike rack. But Africa brings every bike to its knees: despite the multiple challenges of sand, mud, bad roads, and heavy loads, none of the 74 languages spoken in Zambia has a word for “maintenance.” The black paint on the top tube of Susan’s bike is worn away, evidence of innumerable mounts and dismounts in her kitenge (a traditional wraparound skirt). It no longer has brakes, and there isn’t much left of the saddle, which is held together with old shoelaces. The steering has almost half an

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inch of play, and the crank arms, with the bare-pedal axes sticking out, scrape both sides of the frame when she pedals. In four years, Susan has gone the equivalent of halfway around the world on her bike—in 104 degrees in the dust of the dry season; 86 degrees in the sticky humidity of the rainy season; and when tracks, paths, and roads are clogged with mud.

Once her work on the farm is done, Susan goes to see people who are mortally threatened by HIV. In her job as caregiver, she’s a guardian angel for the sick. Susan’s clients are people who can no longer manage the walk to the nearest medical facility—it takes about 4 hours to get there and another 4 to get back, not to mention the waiting time on arrival. Providing medicine is actually the easiest part of her job.

Much more important is the contact she makes with the breaking, the broken, and the struggling. On foot, Susan would only be able to visit one HIV-positive person a day, or maybe two—6 miles there and 6 miles back would be feasible. But incidents and emergencies would make things more difficult.

Distance is the factor to consider for those who live in the Zambian savanna. In an age where instant information is available at any time from the World Wide Web, and visits to the bookstore or newsstand are no longer vital, the Western world is gradually losing its sense of distance. But in Zambia, the bicycle is the fiberglass cable, and Susan is the message— sometimes it’s good news; more often, it’s bad. Three of her clients have died in recent years, and she has buried all three.

You wouldn’t recognize the cemeteries as such when you go past them—to the untrained eye, they look like untended fields.

Petersen Susan’s first client of the day is Petersen. There is not much left of this former Zambian Army soldier. His cheeks are gaunt, and the gray stubble hidden among his protruding bones is difficult to shave. His collarbone and shoulders stick out of his 56-yearold skin, and there’s hardly any meat on them. Petersen was released from military service in 1989 and returned to his village, where he married and went on to have six children with his wife—the youngest is now 11, the oldest, 23. The round, clay granary that is their family home—about 3 feet in diameter and standing on stilts 1 1/2 feet above the ground— is well stocked with maize.

Petersen says he is “very happy” as he squints out over his yard of compacted clay, where his kids and the neighbors’ kids play Nsolo (a game played with four rows of six scooped-out holes in the ground and two nuts per hole, used as playing pieces). “Very happy.” If you didn’t know better, you might almost think he was a happy retiree. But Petersen is one of Susan’s clients, and he knows he is HIV-positive. His wife hugs him gently. He seems fragile—you can only imagine the kind of pain he is in. His wife has never been tested, though.

It’s a common story with the diagnosis of HIV in Zambia: first tuberculosis, then persistent illness, a lost referral slip, a voluntary self-test, then certainty.

You wouldn’t guess Petersen is the same person as the strong man depicted in the pictures in his hut, who is wearing a funny hat at the wheel of his truck with his weapon in firing position, his arms around his comrades. Those memories aren’t important now. Susan is important—Susan, who listens to him. Susan, who brings him medicine. Susan, who he can give messages to.

Occasionally, she even helps him cook. She lights the fire, wets the pots, and rubs ash onto them so that they don’t go black in the flames, then fills them with water, heats it until the germs are dead, and stirs in maize flour, peanut butter, and a pinch of

In four years, Susan has gone the equivalent of halfway around the world on her bike ... it no longer has brakes, and there’s not much left of the saddle. salt, and carries on stirring until it solidifies and can be made into nshima (Zambian bread). It is then rolled into balls by hand, and served with vegetables, chicken (sometimes), or fish.

When Susan leaves, Petersen stresses again that he is “very happy.” He’s a man with a full life, a winner when it comes to average life expectancy by his country’s standard of around 52.4 years—the rate is among the lowest in the world, owing to the country’s high poverty (despite recent economic boosts) and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, which afflicts one in every 14 Zambians.

Yet although the country may be knee-deep in catastrophe, Zambians are fond of saying, “I live positive.” In saying it, they take the sting out of the joke they’ve just made. “Living positive” means being happy, whatever happens. Two thirds of the country’s population live below the poverty line, and eight out of 10 Zambians are subsistence farmers, meaning they wrest as much as they can from the rock-hard earth during the rainy season so as not to go hungry during the dry months. In the villages, an inflation rate of more than 8 percent doesn’t particularly attract anyone’s attention; a chicken is a much more reliable unit of currency.

Mildred How did this woman ever contract HIV? The elegant lady in a jaunty little hat says she has her suspicions, but her prime suspect died back in 1999. Then, as now, it was not uncommon for Zambian men to have other wives or partners in addition to their primary wife. As a primary wife, Mildred is the mother of two children, and she has regular contact with her son, who has given her three grandchildren. Unusually, she has more ducks than grandchildren—actually, plenty of them. “A lot of people don’t like my ducks,” the feisty woman explains. “But I do.”

Her exotic animals are kept as a source of food, plus she can boil their eggs or stir them into nshima. Mildred’s second luxury is a vegetable garden; she is proud to showcase her life, full of culture, interests, and attentiveness. Mildred cultivates her treasured vegetables: tomatoes, cabbage, and a type of spinach, all protected by a high fence made of woven grass. She can sell a bunch of spinach for 1,000 kwacha, which is equivalent to about 25¢. A fish the size of a couple of fingers from the brackish water of a nearby brook will set you back 5,000 kwacha; she occasionally splashes out on one. Midlred is very careful about what she eats, and she has never drunk alcohol.

She retains her dignity—standing straight and upright, she speaks clearly and thoughtfully.

Once she’s back on her bike, Susan tells us about the pain 77

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Top: The thick sand on the Zambian tracks makes progress arduous work in the summer months; mud in the rainy season makes it even harder.

Bottom: The World Bicycle Relief bikes are called “Buffaloes”—built like a buffalo, they’re made of steel, have no gears, and their racks can carry up to 220 lbs. But the harsh African conditions can still break them.

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Top: The vegetables Mildred cultivates by hand in her garden, which are protected against intruders by a wall made of grass, provide both a livelihood and a means of payment.

Bottom: Susan demonstrates how to use a femidom, the female version of the condom.

All of the people in the room are due to become parents soon; one of the men in the 15 couples present is HIV-positive, but he doesn’t know it yet. Susan will have to tell him.

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“Very happy”: Petersen is a man with a full life, a winner when it comes to average life expectancy

by Zambia’s standard.

Mildred experiences. Susan explains that Mildred didn’t identify her illness for far too long. And although she must have gone through at least six rainy and six dry seasons with headaches, diarrhea, fevers, and hemorrhoids, who would dare demand this kind of detail from a woman like her?

She then sets off for the next set of people awaiting her attention, who are about 6 miles away. Her pace is quick, but the sand tracks are clogged. She sits up straight on what remains of her saddle, her back extended, holding the handlebars as far back as possible so the front wheel doesn’t sink into the road. It’s an efficient, dignified riding style, but it also means Susan feels the sharp pain in her chest—unexplained by doctors—a bit less.

Hildah and Ireene

Tolex, 36, has known he’s HIV-positive for six months. His 32-year-old wife, Hildah, is also HIV-positive. No one knows how many of the children—who are busy kicking a tattered ball around between the kitchen hut and the latrine—are also infected. Tolex watches them as they play in their shabby soccer shirts; Samuel Eto’o, the former Barcelona striker from Cameroon, is on the back of one of them, but none of these children has ever seen him play.

Tolex has been in a state of shock ever since discovering he was HIV-positive, and Susan is trying to get him back on his feet. His youngest child was named Ireene at birth, but now Hildah likes to call their 2-month-old Priscilla also, and it still isn’t clear which name will prevail. Despite having a HIVpositive father and mother, there’s still a good chance Ireene might have been born HIV-negative. If Hildah acts quickly enough, antiretroviral combination therapy can lower the likelihood of her passing the virus onto her unborn child, but you can only tell if it has worked once the child is born.

Ireene—an 8-week-old infant who weighs well under 6.5 lbs.—is unaware that her fate will be determined today via a two-hour bike-ride from her hut. Susan has organized a DNA test for Ireene at the hospital in Shimukuni (while it is called a hospital, in reality it is just three small, sparse rooms—still, with only one doctor and two nurses, it manages to see 10,000 patients a year).

The hospital’s first room stinks of varnish, and at the moment, it is being used for junk. “Sorry, we’re renovating,” explains head physician Justin, with a shrug of his shoulders.

He can just about make a living as he tries to manage this chaos. The second room is used both as a delivery ward and the holding area for new under-age mothers; there are 10 teenagers and six new-born babies in this small room, which 80

is about 160 square feet. The youngest person here is only six hours old. The third room is for examinations—this is where Susan will carry out the HIV test on Ireene. The little one looks pretty anemic after the long journey. She also seems a bit lethargic, but she was already tired during the home visit.

The first world would probably classify Susan’s work as that of a certified nurse, yet here she lives in a mud hut. She can quickly wring the neck of a chicken or dog if need be; she draws water from the domestic well in an old, torn, plastic jerrican; and she balances bundles of firewood on her head. But at the clinic, Susan is transformed into a respected figure—a sage or saint, almost. You can see the respect in the way her patients look at her: she personifies comfort, assistance, and knowledge.

Susan set off on her bike at 5 a.m., an hour before sunrise, to reach the clinic by 7 a.m. sharp. If she wanted to do the same job without a bike, she would have had to set off on foot no later than 2 a.m. In contrast to her outreach work as a caregiver, her work at the hospital is paid, earning her the equivalent of 30¢ an hour. Were it not for the bike, the distance and time involved in earning that sum would be laughable.

Cards stored in a lockable cabinet are the hospital’s only piece of premium technical equipment. They are white and have five coin-sized circles printed at the top. Underneath is a name field.

First, Susan enters the details of the person being examined.

Then she fills the circles with droplets of blood. With an anemic little thing like Ireene, the procedure is excruciating—she has to prick Ireene in the heel four times to get the five drops of blood.

The little one only cries at the first two jabs. Hildah will be back here in two months; by then, the Ministry of Health’s transport truck, which sets off from Lusaka for the provinces once a month and returns a month later, will have brought the results.

Purity and Isaac

One afternoon, 15 couples who are expecting a child jostle their way on to the narrow benches of the empty village mortuary, which also serves as a meeting place. These couples are very modern, particularly the husbands—they hold their wives’ hands and tenderly touch their bumps, some of which are already noticeable. At the front, a girl of about 13 is holding a small child in her arms; it can already giggle. The child calls the girl “mama,” not sister. The 13-year-old is the only person in the room who doesn’t have a partner, and her belly is already swollen again.

Inside, a lecturer is advising couples on how HIV can be transmitted, the diseases that accelerate its progress (such as malaria), and on the ways to give a fetus—even if inside an already-infected body—the best chance of a life without infection, both at the point of birth and during breastfeeding.

The couples listen intently. They are young, virile, and lifeaffirming. The talk itself is dry, but it does what it has to do.

Then it is Susan’s turn. She sweeps through the mortuary like a dervish, enthralling the boys and men as much as she does the girls and the women. Her audience is spellbound in under two minutes. First, she demonstrates how to use a femidom, the female version of the condom: “grab the end, twist it out, put your legs up, and stick it in—alternatively, you can crouch down. Dear gentlemen, please make sure you enter the femidom, and don’t miss the target. Ladies, please also make sure.” There is giggling in the audience.

Safe sex is vital, and it takes a person with Susan’s charisma to get the message across, especially as illness and suffering have a powerful ally in some of the Catholic Church’s teachings.

Susan always goes to Mass on Sundays, even though its stance

Top: In emergency situations, Susan lends her bicycle to reliable people like Simon, whose nephew broke his arm while we were there.

Bottom: One of the three rooms that makes up the hospital in Shimukuni.

This is where Susan carries out HIV tests. She needs five drops of blood to do so; it took two hours to get that much blood from tiny baby Ireene.

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Top: Edith’s livelihood is the village tavern. The revelers are all men, as the well-being of Zambian society tends to rest mostly on women’s shoulders.

Bottom: Susan lives with her mother in the house her bike is leaning against, though she brings it into the house at night. In the background is the kitchen where she prepares nshima and vegetables, ocasionally with some meat or fish.

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Many put themselves in the hands of the traditional healers.

Susan tries to free them from these charlatans, but often it is too late. on contraception contradicts her own advice to patients.

At the end of the young parents’ event, there is the quick HIV test: two drops of blood, a half-hour wait, and then a diagnosis. One of the 15 courting couples taking the blood test consists of a 17-year-old girl—we’ll call her Purity, a fairly common name in Zambia—and her boyfriend, who is 10 years her senior, whom we’ll call Isaac. Isaac already has children, which isn’t surprising for a 27-year-old in Zambia. It’s highly exceptional that Purity has waited until 17 to have her first child. She attended school till seventh grade; from then on, her education would have cost her money. Isaac is the man of her dreams—he is “handsome, intelligent, and he looks after me” —but he is also HIV-positive. Purity is too, but she didn’t know until now. With one sentence, Susan transforms the life of an optimistic teenager into a “fate,” a “case.” Susan wishes she doesn’t have to do what she does when she explains to the couple that they can no longer have unprotected sex under any circumstances, due to the risk of reinfection. She prescribes both of them medicines, including ones that should prevent their unborn child from becoming infected—and it’s all in a day’s work for Susan. But Purity doesn’t quite understand what is happening to her, and Isaac doesn’t say anything.

Back outside, Susan is relieved to get back on her bike. She can never get used to days like this, but the bike ride does her good. It increases Susan’s operating range by five, meaning she can visit five times as many people as she would be able to on foot. But she hasn’t become five times stronger—Susan’s mother says she is concerned about the pain in her daughter’s chest that Susan is mentioning with increasing frequency.

Edith

It looks like Edith now has to contend with cancer, too—as if being HIV-positive and having lost her husband recently wasn’t enough hassle already. An examination next week will say for sure, and finally establish the cause of the terrible pain she feels when she goes to the bathroom. Her oldest child—just 15 and still going through puberty—is already pregnant. However, the youngest has been entrusted to the care of NGO World Vision.

Last May, Edith sold her maize crop at the end of the rainy season. It was a good harvest. The proceeds, a million kwacha, provided her with enough start-up capital for a little store with a beer shack attached. The store sells only a couple of bars of soap, some candles, and some ribbon; the beer shack is an openfronted hut where she serves munkoyo—a cloudy, viscous, alcoholic brew made of maize and vegetable roots, which ferments behind the bar and smells disgusting to the uninitiated

(every now and then, a consumer is taken to hospital when a munkoyo brewer has made a poor root selection).

For the group of men hanging out in front of Edith’s bar, drinking munkoyo is their chief pastime. Whenever the atmosphere threatens to turn a little sour, Edith clears away the goods from her supermarket into the hut she lives in—which means that at short notice, she may no longer own a store.

Edith can’t allow herself to close her store and bar to go to the hospital, but she doesn’t want to go now, anyway. She lets the world wash over her; no desire to go on fighting. She has written her silent cry for salvation in big letters on the ocher-clay walls of her house: “Let people talk. They too will tire.”

Susan has just one message left for Edith, which she doggedly and insistently tries to drum into her on every visit: when Edith’s daughter gives birth, she should send her back to school—it’s the only way out of poverty. If Edith’s daughter did go back to school, she might qualify for a World Bicycle Relief bike one day. There are specific programs for women who want to.

Edith half-heartedly promises she will, as her daughter stands bored at the munkoyo bar, flirting with the customers.

Simon

Simon received 12 years of school education, but then decided to stay at home in Chibundi and work as a farmer. He attended courses in the city, and now teaches the other farmers about crop rotation and fertilization. He also earns money by burning charcoal and selling it in the city, borrowing Susan’s bike for this purpose. Simon writes a lot—his handwriting is clear and his notes are detailed. He can speak almost 10 languages, including a lovely, soft English, which he communicates with a gentle sing-song accent. His lungs are already beginning to fail.

Simon has five children between 6 and 18, the oldest two of whom help him financially. His two youngest live with his sister and go to school. He gives thanks for the small miracle that his wife and all five children are HIV-negative.

Even though his wife helps him out in the fields, Simon can feel that his strength is failing him. Susan implies that he is really very weak. He has frequent diarrhea, and he suffers with constant headaches. Some days, he can’t get out of bed—those days are becoming increasingly common. But he is the kind of man who would never complain. Susan adds, “Our men only tell us when it’s already too late. That’s probably the main reason why infected women in Zambia live longer than infected men.”

What Simon originally mistook for a plain bout of cholera turned out to be HIV infection; his neighbors took him to the hospital and had him tested. There was medicine at the hospital, which was another stroke of good fortune. Many in Simon’s situation would have placed themselves in the hands of traditional healers. These healers have considerable power, and are part of the established culture. Their drinks, tinctures, and ribbons supposedly help against HIV; only their hut or yard is safe, they say—all others are possessed. Caregivers like Susan try to free HIV victims from the clutches of some of these charlatans, but often it is too late.

Simon is a clear-thinking, rational man; he would have had good prospects. Where does he see himself in five years’ time? “I wish I still had another five years,” he whispers, then laughs.

Susan says the earlier the disease is detected, the better the medical treatment you get, and the healthier your life is, the greater your chances are of a reprieve. And she is living proof.

She’s had the virus herself for 10 years now, but she still gets up every day, climbs onto her bike, and faces the world. It’s a start.

Find out more at: www.worldbicyclerelief.org

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Body+ Mind More

Breaking news: South African surfing superstar Jordy Smith reveals the things he needs to compete in the ASP tour on page 88.

Contents 86. TRAVEL IDEAS Skiing in Austria’s Zillertal Valley 88. Get THE GEAR On board with surfer Jordy Smith 90. TRAINING Top tips from the pros

PHOTOGRAPHY: BRIAN BIELMANN/Red Bull content pool

91. GLOBAL FOOD 92. BEST CLUBS Café Caprice, Cape Town 92. MUST LISTEN “Infamous” Mobb Deep’s new EP 93. TAKE 5 The Phantom Band’s go-to LPs 94. THE LIST 96. SAVE THE DATE 98. MIND’S EYE

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Go with the snow

UP AND AWAY THIS MONTH’S TRAVEL TIPS

ZILLERTAL: With season-long powder and unspoilt slopes, there are very few snow sports destinations that compare with this huge Austrian valley.

December and January in the Alps mean just one thing: winter sports—and there’s nowhere more favored for snowboarding than Austria’s Zillertal Valley.

Pro boardshaper Wolfgang “Wolle” Nyvelt has been carving these slopes since he was 18, and he rates Zillertal among the hottest of winter-sport spots—though “spot” hardly does justice to the broadest and southernmost tributary valley of the Inn Valley in the state of Tyrol.

Situated 25 miles east of Innsbruck, the area encompasses 415 miles of slopes in Austria’s only year-round skiing region, blessed as it is by the 10,663-foot Hintertux Glacier that guarantees snow.

Zillertal’s 6 million annual overnight stays aren’t just about snow, though. The area is also popular for the annual Zillertal “Wängl Tängl” at the Vans Penken Park in the town of Mayrhofen. This snow ’n’ skate team event will be celebrating its 10th anniversary from March 17–24, 2012, and will be backed by all kinds of street art, street parties, and live bands.

Here Nyvelt describes some of Zillertal’s best spots, and shows us around the valley.

For more information, go to www.aesthetiker.com

WOLFGANG NYVELT, 34, was born in Salzburg, Austria, and has been a snowboarder since the age of 18. In 2008, “Wolle” won the TransWorld Rider of the Year title. A pro boardshaper, he lives in the Zillertal town of Mayrhofen, and has been making films about snowboarding for Absinthe Films for the past 12 years.

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Affordable: A two-day adult pass for all 172 ski lifts in the Zillertal area costs from around $113.

Hotzone Park Gerlos

Kaltenbach

This 32,917-square-foot park gets sun all day long and has its own boardercross course. There’s also a half-pipe and a snake run with banked curves, waves, and jumps.

The skiing regions of Kaltenbach and Hochfügen are linked, and for much of the season, they have perfect snow conditions. If the weather turns bad, then head for the fantastic tree runs.

Betterpark Hintertux

Hotel Bergfried

Alongside the Saas-Fee in Switzerland, Hintertux is one of the best glaciers for snowboarding in Europe. And this park has a double combo, a 393-foot super-pipe, and a series of kickers.

This four-star, family-owned and run hotel boasts a beautiful spa area. The whole snowboarding elite come here to chill out and prepare for the forthcoming season.

ZILLERTAL Tyrol, Austria

Fügen Kaltenbach

Innsbruck Hochfügen

Gerlos Gerlosstein Mayerhofen

The pros show off their skills at the annual Wängl Tängl contest in Mayrhofen.

WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT SULLIVAN, JOHANNES SAUTNER (2), CHRISTIAN EBERL, WÄNGL TÄNGL/SIMON LEMMERER, WÄNGL TÄNGL/MIC DRAGASCHNIG, MAURITIUS, ERWIN POLANC/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, PR (5)

5 km 3 miles

Wängl Tängl

Kristallhütte

My local mountain of Penken is where the Wängl Tängl takes place each year at the Vans Penken Park. This skate and snowboarding contest celebrates its 10th birthday in March of next year.

At 7,043 feet above sea level, the view is stunning from up here. This luxury chalet plays host to exhibitions, DJs, jazz brunches, and charity events featuring some top international chefs.

Scotland Yard Pub

Zum Griena

The “Scotty” is where the boarder scene gets together in the evening.

Peter Krenslehner makes the best mojitos in the valley in his small, cosy pub. There’s often a live band, too.

Zum Griena is the place to go for regional delicacies. This traditional farmer’s house offers a rustic atmosphere and the best Zillertaler Krapfen (cheese-filled pastries).

Toboggan run

Spannagel Cave

In Hainzenberg, there’s a 4.3-milelong natural toboggan run that is lit up in the evenings. A day pass costs around just under $10. Stop for a bite to eat halfway down at Schlittenstadl.

The entrance to this marble cave can be found right under the mountain hut. Take a guided tour here and be amazed by stalagmites, stalactites, silica formations, and crystals.

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All Aboard

GET THE GEAR

JORDY SMITH: The South African surf star chills out at his home in Camps Bay, Cape Town, and runs us through the stuff he uses on the ASP tour.

2. Nikon D7000 camera I’m always traveling and seeing great places. I try to take as many photos as I can, and this bombproof Nikon— with its 16.2-megapixel sensor—never misses a beat.

3. Mr. Zogs Sex Wax® There are some things you just can’t improve on.

Mr. Zogs Sex Wax® has been around forever, but without the wax, you can’t stick to the board—and without this traction, you can’t control it.

4. Channel Islands surfboard Made by shaping legend Al Merrick, this 6’ 3” stick is my all-rounder. It’s 19” wide and 2 1/2” thick. I like a bit of volume in a board, especially in the nose, which helps me turn it in the air.

5. O’Neill Shirts shirt I’ve been with O’Neill Shirts since the end of 2007. It’s a cool brand, and one of the pioneers in the sport. This is one of my Jordy Smith Signature Shirts—there’s a whole range coming out soon.

6. Oakley® sunglasses If there’s one sport that demands a good pair of sunnies, it’s surfing—and I wear them all the time.

I signed with Oakley® last year, and these are my new Jordy Smith Signature Squared Jupiter sunglasses.

They’ll be out next year.

7. On A Mission traction pad The traction pad is a key piece of equipment. It not only allows me to snap the board into direction-changing turns, but it keeps me connected to it in big airs.

This is my signature model.

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8. & 11. Channel Islands Surfboards (6’2”) These are my “grovel” boards for small, less-powerful surf.

They’re half an inch wider than my 6’3”, and obviously shorter. They have the same thick rails, but they’re lighter, faster, and looser than my bigger boards.

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9. On A Mission leash It’s not cool to be swimming around after your board all the time, so a good leash is important to keep it close.

I’ll use a thinner, lightweight leash for smaller waves, and a meatier one for bigger boards and waves.

10. 2011 Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay trophy I’m very proud of this! It’s my Billabong Pro trophy.

I first won at Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape—it was my first-ever ASP World Tour win, and I defended my title there again in 2011.

12. O’Neill Psycho 4/3 mm wetsuit I love Cape Town, It’s where I live when I’m not traveling.

The surf’s great, but the water is freezing cold. A quality wetsuit is a no-brainer.

13. DHD surfboard (6’2”) Another small-wave board, this one was designed by Aussie shaper Darren Handley. It’s a great pointbreak board, and it goes really well at Jeffreys Bay.

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14. Future Fins fins Another one of my sponsors —they’re always working on shapes for me. Without a good set of fins, your board is not going to function. These are from my signature series.

15. On A Mission board bag My boards and I spend a lot of time on planes, and while they may not arrive when I do, at least I know they’re well protected. This 6’6” bag is perfect for all my travels. www.jordysmith.com

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Board meeting: Jordy Smith lines up his equipment outside his house in Camps Bay.

words: steve smith. PhotograPhy: KolesKy/NiKoN/lexar

1. Foam Roller Along with paddling fitness and core strength, flexibility and mobility are a key part of a pro surfer’s physical conditioning. This foam roller is for my back and spine alignment.

A PRO‘S ESSENTIALS

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TRAINING WITH THE PROS

Gold digger The world’s most dominant Nordic skiier powers up for his championship-winning races by spending as much time going uphill as possible.

PETTER NORTHUG JR.:

Though only 25, Norway’s Petter Northug Jr. has been the toast of the ultra-competitive Nordic skiing community for some years now. The two-time gold medalist in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics added to his trophy cabinet with three gold and two silver medals at the Nordic Skiing World Championships this year. With treasure hauls like that, Northug should be allowed to take it a little more easy.

Slope-slog king: Petter Northug Jr. However, the four to six meals he eats each day are not a guilty pleasure—they’re actually a requirement.

Before and during training, Northug loads up on carbs, going for protein afterwards. “I try to be 6 1/2 to 8 lbs. heavier when I’m building up,” he says, “but by the end of winter, I weigh 22 lbs. less than I did at the start.”

Higher, better, faster, stronger The 2010/2011 Tour de Ski winner leaves nothing to chance when training—and the key to Northug’s success comes from on high.

Training camps at altitude are an indispensable part of seven-time world champion Petter Northug Jr.’s regime. In summer, he often trains higher than 6,560 feet above sea level. “Training at such altitude increases red blood cell development, and therefore, your stamina,” explains Northug (right).

“Maximum red blood cell production occurs after around 15 days. Then I return to sea level to work on speed. My recipes for success are to set myself goals and to always think ahead. During a race, I know very specifically what I need to concentrate on. I make precise plans as to what, when, and where I’m going to eat, and what stage I need to be at during training or competition.

Some people say I’m selfish, but actually, I’m just very focused on my job.”

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Medal work The cross-country superstar spends in the region of 25 hours a week on skis and skates.

Monday Morning: 30-minute warm-up, then 6 x 8 minutes of interval skating (with pulse rate between 160 and 185 bpm).

Lunch: 4- to 5-hour break.

Afternoon: 2-hour session of cross-country skiing.

Tuesday Morning: 30-minute warm-up, 6 x 8 minutes of interval training (with pulse rate between 160 and 185 bpm), then 2 hours of endurance cross-country skiing, and a relaxed, cool-down ski (with pulse rate of 130 bpm).

Afternoon: 1.5 hours of gentle skiing/cross-country skiing.

Wednesday Morning: cross-country skiing for 2 hours, with 8 x 10 seconds of high-speed interval training.

Afternoon: 30-minute warm-up, then 2 hours of speed, explosive strength, and strength exercises at the gym to stabilize the legs and upper body.

Thursday Morning: 3 hours of lowintensity/cross-country skiing (with pulse rate of 130 bpm).

Rest of the day: Recovery.

Friday Morning: 1.5 hours of warm-up skiing; 1.5 hours of interval skiing (5 x 6 minutes uphill).

Afternoon: 1.5 hours of gentle skiing/cross-country skiing.

Saturday Morning: 2.5 hours of skatingstyle cross-country skiing.

Afternoon: 2 hours of classic cross-country skiing.

Sunday 1 hour and 45 minutes of interval training (5 x 5 minutes uphill) at full speed (pulse rate of 185 bpm), then 1 hour of cool-down skiing (with pulse rate of 130 bpm). (Basically, do as much training as possible uphill.)

www.teamnorthug.no

WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: FRODE SANDBECH (1), IMAGO SPORTFOTO (2)

WORK OUT

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tastes of the world national dishes to make at home

Danish bacon Here’s a tasty Danish dish for those who love to pork out on pig flesh.

Words: klaus kamolz. PhotograPhy: fotostudio eisenhut & mayer

flÆskesteg:

In Denmark, home of Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant— voted the world’s best for the past two years—people love a slice of pig flesh served every which way possible, but nothing excites them more than a roast. Before ovens became common in private homes, hungry Danes used to get their cuts of meat braised by their local baker once he was done with the day’s baking. But the most famous Danish roast is Flæskesteg—pork roast with an obligatory crispy crust. It is a festive winter dish, traditionally served at Christmas, along with hearty servings of vegetables that help make its large amounts of fat easier to digest.

In traditional Danish cuisine, the side dishes are usually sour, but when served with this dish, they’re sweet— for example, the potatoes are caramelized. Flæskesteg is also usually served with red cabbage that has been steamed using a combination of vinegar and sugar, and then seasoned with Christmas spices—providing a mouthwatering way to get your winter dose of vitamin C.

the recipe Serves four A long, 3 1/3–4 1/2-lb. pork loin Salt Pepper 3 tsp. whole caraway seeds 1 tsp. mustard powder

8–10 bay leaves 2 1/4 lb. small, waxy potatoes 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 stick butter 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg Water

Make incisions in the pork rind every 1/2 inch, deep enough to reach the layer of fat (but no deeper). Rub as much as possible of the salt, pepper, mustard powder, and 2 tsp. of the caraway seeds into the incisions. Cut the bay leaves in half lengthways and place into the incisions at regular intervals. Fill a large roasting pan with about 3/4 inch of water. Place the pork loin in the pan with the fat layer on the bottom, and leave to stand. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F. When the oven is ready, insert pork and roast until the rind is white. Reduce the heat to 320°F, turn the loin over, and cook for approximately 2 hours without basting. Next, increase the temperature to 460°F, and continue roasting until a brown, crispy crust has formed. Turn the oven off, leaving the loin to stand for 10 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar. To caramelize the potatoes, boil them in salted water, leave until cool, and peel. Next, melt the sugar in a small pan. Add the butter, then the nutmeg and 1–2 tbsp. of water, and stir. When smooth, pour the glaze over the potatoes. Sprinkle the salt and remaining caraway seeds over the pork, and serve—ideally with steamed and seasoned red cabbage.

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Café Caprice was the first to go alfresco in the Cape Town resort.

Queens get the money

Out nOw essential listening

mobb deep: “the infamous” defined a generation. the Queensbridge legends on their ’hood and the state of hip-hop today.

Party all over the world Trying hard not to try too hard.

Cosmopolitan cocktail CAFÉ CApRICe, CApe ToWN: it’s the perfect summer’s day: an afternoon on camps Bay’s beautiful beach, then across the road for sundowners and decadence.

We love running a venue in this town because… you can’t compare cape town and camps Bay to anywhere else in south africa. it’s just so cosmopolitan. it has the most incredible energy, especially in the summer months. When we started our café in 2001, our idea was to bring a beach bar to cape town—there weren’t really any true beach bars in south africa, and camps Bay was ready for it.

From outside, the club looks… like an old greek building —the old arches are very prominent, as are the tables outside. We were the first to put tables on the pavement.

We really get going at… it’s an all-day venue—some people come in at 9 a.m. and stay all day. the best time is obviously around sunset, especially in the summertime.

Our regulars are…

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creative, edgy, trendy—the typical cape town guy and girl, trying hard not to try too hard. some of our regulars are Jordy smith, herschelle gibbs, and lyndall Jarvis.

When leonardo dicaprio was shooting in s.a., this was his base—i think they feel like normal “guys at the bar” here.

I’d consider it packed if… there’s 300 people in here— that’s pretty much capacity.

The craziest night was… too many memorable ones!

But the one that comes to mind most ended up with two european models asking me if they could take my barman home.

—Dave Raad, club owner Café Caprice 37 Victoria Road, Camps Bay Cape Town, South Africa +27 21 438 8315 www.cafecaprice.co.za

Havoc (left) and Prodigy are back.

Words: richard s chang. PhotograPhy: KolesK/niKon/lexar (2), getty images (1)

Best CluBs

of those artists come mobb deep’s 1995 from that one place? “the infamous” We’re just lucky we was as haunting as landed there, i guess. it was gritty, and is So what about considered one of today’s hip-hop? the most authentic Fresh Mobb: EP prodigy: now it’s gangster-rap albums “Black Cocaine.” just a lot of people of all time. now, over trying to come up in the 15 years later, Prodigy and game and do their thing. it’s havoc are back with a new not as easy as it used to be— eP, “Black cocaine.” it was never really easy, but the red bulletin: What it’s even harder now. was Queensbridge like? havoc: ’cause there’s so havoc: i always think about many people trying to do that part, and i’m just glad i it—everybody wants to be wasn’t born anywhere else. a rapper now.

[Queensbridge] taught us prodigy: not only that, a lot. it taught us loyalty. it but so much has been done taught us how people could before. it’s like, “What do be so treacherous. it taught you got that we haven’t us to watch out for people. seen already?” that’s the Musically, there’s no other challenge for a lot of these place in the world. new artists. there really isn’t. We come from a neighborhood of legends—roxanne shanté, “Black Cocaine” (Infamous mc shan, marley marl, the Records) is out now. News, Juice crew. When you think tour dates, and sounds on: myspace.com/mobbdeep about it, how did so many

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Eddie Cochran, “Greatest Hits” I remember listening to this in the 1980s and being massively influenced by what it said about teenage rebellion —particularly that moment on “C’mon Everybody” where he says, “Who cares?” You know he’s been talking about having this party at his parents’ place, and he knows he’s going to have to pay for it, but he says, “Who cares?”

What a great moment— magic. Cochran’s music had a massive connection to punk— it was the punk of its day.

Take Five The albums ThaT influenced The musicians

“AC/DC was the first album I bought”

WORDS: ANTHONY ROWLINSON. PHOTOGRAPHY: INHOuSEPRESS.COM

The phanTom band: The brilliantly unclassifiable, prog-electrorock-indie five-piece are currently lapping up the critical rave for their second album, “The Wants.” Keyboard master Andy Wake (center) talks us through five of the key albums that influenced their unique sound.

It’s a pretty long schlep from Glasgow, Scotland down to England’s sunny South Coast (462 miles, according to Google Maps), but for a band surprised—nay, mystified—by the word-of-mouth buzz and critical rapture that has met their first two albums, a trip to Brighton on a night that is chilly enough to make hatwearing essential (rather than fashionable) to meet a vociferously welcoming crowd must feel like a deserved step into the bubble of success. Aware that the bubble may burst at any moment—given the non-commercial, yet brilliantly energized and diverse nature of their sound—The Phantom Band play with the lunatic abandon of a band who aren’t interested in learning the rules, and who know this trip could stop any minute. Theirs is a vibe of the here and now, a loose ’n’ loud blast of sonic fun that’s nevertheless sufficiently crafted to make multiple-return listens not just appealing, but essential. If it sounds like an uncommon mixture, that’s because it is—and a squint at their influences reveals why: Cochran via Kraftwerk, Led Zeppelin, Captain Beefheart, and AC/DC. Oh, and did we mention the sea shanties? We can’t forget the sea shanties….

AC/DC, “Who Made Who” This was the first album I bought with my own money, so it has to go in my top five.

When I was a kid, Angus and Malcolm Young made me desperately want to play the guitar. Between me and a buddy, we had every AC/DC record. But I was talentless, even though I loved music—I guess that’s why I ended up messing around with synths and making sounds.

Kraftwerk, “Computer World” This was an amazing record; you can hear its influence on The Phantom Band. We have a Krautrock element straight from Kraftwerk. “Computer World” isn’t maybe quite as acclaimed as “Trans-Europe Express” or “Autobahn,” but there’s an amazing quality to the production. It’s a kind of pure, expansive sound.

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, “Safe As Milk” We have quite a wide-ranging set of influences in The Phantom Band, but all of us like things like Captain Beefheart—and if I had to pick one out, I’d nominate his first album, “Safe As Milk.”

There’s a brilliant groove in there, quite repetitive, with a country element.

That’s reminded me of something contemporary: “Psychic Psummer” by Cave.

On record, Cave are very Kraut-y and hard, but watch them live, and they’re a totally different band. I really like bands like that. It’s kind of like The Phantom Band: some people prefer you live; others prefer the studio sound.

Led Zeppelin, “Led Zeppelin III” They were another band who had a completely different thing going on live, compared to their studio sound. I remember my brother bought it for me from the corner store as a birthday present, even though I didn’t own a record player at the time. So I think he took it right back from me as soon as I’d opened it. But anyway, I ended up making a cassette copy of it so I could listen to it on my Hitachi super-woofer (I eventually got back most of the other records he also “bought” me). As for the record… “Immigrant Song” is still unbelievable, even now.

The Phantom Band hosted Phestive Phantomine festival on December 16 and 17 at Stereo in Glasgow: www.phantomband.co.uk

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The List

Dec./Jan. 2012

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CONTINUE THE FESTIVE VIBE WITH THIS MONTH’S LIST OF THE TOP GLOBAL MUST-SEE/ DO EVENTS TO START YOUR NEW YEAR WITH A BANG.

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12/8–20/11, OAHU, HAWAII, U.S.A.

ASP World Tour Hawaii is the spiritual home of surfing, so it is a fitting setting for this year’s ASP World Tour finale. Surfing icon Kelly Slater is the record holder here at the Billabong Pipe Masters with six wins, and was just a squeak away after a math snafu from snagging the 11th ASP World Tour title in San Francisco on the 2011 tour. Maximum concentration is essential on Oahu; the huge waves at Pūpūkea have already seen the downfall of many a surfer.

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Tiger Woods : “I have work to do.”

1/23–29/12, SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

PGA Farmers Insurance Open, U.S.A. With the dawn of a new golf season, the question must be raised: Can Tiger Woods make a comeback? After his spate of lady problems and injuries, Woods has yet to perform up to par in recent years—last year was his worst season debut since his first full PGA season—but 2012 could see him return to form. The PGA Tour gets its televised season underway with the Farmer’s Insurance Open in Torrey Pines, Calif., where last year, Bubba Watson clobbered the field with a 16-under 272 win.

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Top-ranked wave rider Kelly Slater.

1/1–15/12, MAR DEL PLATA, ARGENTINA– LIMA, PERU

Dakar Rally

The 33rd running of the world’s toughest off-road rally is being hosted in South America for the fourth time, with an additional four inaugural stages in Peru.

Participants will cross the finish line in the Peruvian capital, Lima, on January 15—it remains to be seen which car will follow in the tire tracks of VW, who have won for the past three consecutive years, but have pulled out of Dakar. Team KTM is a safe bet when it comes to the bikes: riders Cyril Despres (France) and Marc Coma (Spain) have been swapping crowns for the past six years.

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Safe bet: KTM’s Cyril Despres.

Watch Now!

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EXCLUSIVE EVENTS, SHOWS, INTERVIEWS, AND VIDEOS 24/7 ONLINE AT WWW.REDBULL.T V.

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LIVE STREAMS Sports, music, and culture highlights from the world of Red Bull in real time.

LIVE!

3 RED BULL: NEW YEAR. NO LIMITS. JAN. 1, FROM 8 P.M. (PST) Robbie Maddison (above) on motorbike and Levi LaVallee on snowmobile will do a joint 400-foot jump over water in San Diego, Calif. (See story on page 50.) Watch this double world-record attempt live on REDBULL.TV. 12/12–17/11, VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA

Red Bull Thre3style World Finals The tools of the trade: two decks, a mixer, and a bag of tempting tracks. The challenge: DJs have to cover three music genres in one 15-minute set—anything goes, as long as the genres flow together smoothly and keep the dancefloor packed. At the World Finals, national champions from around the globe go head to head to see who can make the party rock the best, much to the delight of the beat-loving crowd.

LIVE!

PHOTOGRAPHY: ACTION IMAGES, GETTY IMAGES, CORBIS, GARTH MILAN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SEAMUS MAKIM/THEPHLUIDITY.COM

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1/12–14/12, ESSAKANE, MALI

Festival au Désert Now in its 11th year, the Festival au Désert is a gathering of international acts who head to the desert near Timbuktu for a music festival that pays tribute to traditional Tuareg gatherings in the region.

Besides several dance competitions, confirmed acts playing this year include Baaba Maal, ‘Tribute to Ali Faka Touré’ (with Barou Diallo, Toumani Diabaté, and Afel Bocoum, and others), and DJ Mathias Kaden.

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1/1/12, THE DOMAIN, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Field Day New Year’s Eve was so earlier this year. Anyone who’s anyone will still be partying the day after in 2012, or—for the real hard nuts—for two days running.

The world’s best New Year dance party gives electronic fans no other choice: Moby, Justice, Tiga, Crystal Castles, Skream & Benga, Busy P, and Metronomy are just some of the great acts who’ll be getting 26,000 hipsters in the dancing mood under the Sydney night sky.

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RED BULL CRASHED ICE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012 JAN. 13–14, SAINT PAUL, MINN. The speedskating/boardercross/downhill skiing combo has only been around for 10 years, but ice cross downhill has fast become a major sport.

The rules are simple: four athletes line up at the start, and the first across the finish line wins. Watch 150 competitors race live on REDBULL.TV.

SERIES AND DOCUMENTARIES Current episodes on a 24-hour loop, followed by every episode on demand.

HERO’S JOURNEY We follow Formula 1 driver Mark Webber (pictured) and other top athletes as they prepare for big competitions, featuring personal insights and neverbefore-seen footage.

THE WINGMAN MEETS ... ...Red Bull Crashed Ice! In this episode, “Wingman” Ed Leigh gives us the history and background to this spectacular world championship, with lots of action guaranteed.

YOUNG GUNS RISING A reality documentary series on the world’s best motorbike-racing youngsters and the dream that unites them: winning the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup to guarantee their entry into the revved-up world of MotoGP.

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Save the Date January 2012

EXPECT MAXIMUM THRILLS WITH YOUR CHILLS THIS WINTER WITH THE GOLDEN GLOBES, SUPER BOWL, AMA SUPERCROSS, AND THE FIRST YOUTH WINTER OLYMPICS.

JANUARY 15, 2012

Golden Globes

JANUARY 7–MAY 5, 2012

AMA Supercross

Because motocross wasn’t loud enough, supercross puts riders inside a stadium for the same rigorous series of jumps and dirty spills. The season starts at Anaheim’s Angel Stadium on Jan. 7, and revs through 14 additional events before the finals in Las Vegas in May. Ryan Villopoto won the series championship last year, and this year, he can expect competition from Red Bull’s James Stewart Jr., the three-time overall champion. www.amasupercross.com

James Stewart Jr. looks to recapture his AMA Supercross crown.

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Not as happy this year.

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Super Bowl XLVI Oh, Indianapolis. When you were named the host city for the next Super Bowl, you were probably really excited because it seemed like there was a very good chance that hometown hero Peyton Manning would lead the Colts into the big game. One gnarly neck injury and one unseasoned quarterback later, it doesn’t look so likely. Sorry, guys—but at least it looks like you’re going to get Madonna to perform at the halftime show! That’s pretty cool! Right? Right? www.nfl.com/superbowl/46

JANUARY 13–22, 2012

2012 Winter Youth Olympics More than 1,000 athletes aged 1419 from 64 countries will travel to Innsbruck and Seefeld, Austria to compete in the 10-day inaugural event—officially known as the I Winter Youth Olympic Games— which features all the favorite sports from the grown-up Olympics: figure skating, alpine skiing, and curling (you know you watch it). Among the young athletes already tipped for glory are alpine-skiing prodigy Mikaela Shiffrin, 16, from Vail, Colo. and halfpipe skier Aaron Blunck, 15,

Mikaela Shiffrin

from Crested Butte, Colo.; both were selected by the United States Ski and Snowboard Association. The Games will also give the young athletes a chance to meet other Olympians and join in cultural exchange programs. www.innsbruck2012.com

WORDS: ANN DONAHUE. PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES (2), GARTH MILAN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL (1)

Even for movie geeks, the early months of the year are a muddle of awards shows, with the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild, and the Producers Guild all handing out statues—not to mention the granddaddy of them all, the Academy Awards. But the Golden Globes stand out from the rest, thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the show—a huge televised party for movie and TV stars, where nominees are known to down a bottle of wine or four over the course of the evening.

Watch live on NBC: www.nbc.com/golden-globes

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Its engineered, photorealistic, vintage-denim print is unique enough to wear on or off the run.

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www.alpinestars.com 2 GOPRO HERO 2 SPORTS CAMERA GoPro has updated its sportscamera line with the new HD Hero2, which goes up to 11MP, will shoot 1080p video at all angles, and can beam video via Wi-Fi to a new accessory. It will also mount on just about anything.

The camera comes in three $300 kits—Outdoor, Motorsports, and

Surf—each with various fixing combinations: helmet mounts, adhesive pads, bungee cords, pivot arms, waterproof housing, and “floaty backdoor.” When secured, it shoots action video and outputs it through a mini-HDMI port, slurping sound through an external mic jack.

For more dangerous situations, a soon-to-be-launched BacPac will clip to the back of the Hero2 that not only streams live video but allows remote control via a smartphone app. www.gopro.com 3 ELEMENT MOHAVE BACKPACK Element‘s 10-Year Mohave Backpack is a high-quality product founded on function and reliability.

The 10-Year Limited Collection is available now in Backpack, Hiker (pictured, $89.50), and Messenger styles.

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www.686.com 5 SISU MOVEMENT BRAVADO A1 55MM TIMEPIECE SISU is committed to creating the boldest, most masculine, and inspired timepiece available.

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Behold the Bravado A1 55 mm. www.sisumovement.com 6 SKULLCANDY THE FIX The FIX earbud and in-ear headphones offer premium sound, noise isolation, and secure fit in an affordable, multifunctional, and action-sport-friendly form. An in-line mic gives full iPhone functionality, including answering calls, skipping tracks, and volume changing. $39.99 (earbud) and $69.99 (in-ear).

www.skullcandy.com Best Buy and Apple stores nationwide

R

oger Tullgren had a problem. The heavily tattooed, 42-year-old Swedish dishwasher couldn’t hold down a job. Tullgren’s problem was that he had very strong feelings about heavy metal—Black Sabbath in particular—and just couldn’t function without the sweet strains of death metal peeling the paint off his workplace walls. His employers and coworkers felt differently, so Tullgren continually found himself out of work.

At last, psychologists came to his aid.

They declared that he had a full-blown disability, a psychological dependence on Black Sabbath—that’s right, Tullgren was addicted to rock. So his employer had to give him a special dispensation to rock out while sudsing the cutlery.

Welcome to the new frontiers of addiction science. Nowadays, experts claim, just about anything can lead you into a dangerous dependency. In fact, you may already be out of control. Enjoy candy? According to Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, sugar is a habit-forming toxin.

Like a bit of pigskin? “Watching football can become an obsession,” as University of Alabama psychologist Josh Klapow told the college’s Web site, UAB News, which noted that “a football addiction can endanger relationships and wreak havoc on the life of a super fan.”

Hang out on Facebook? “Internet addiction” is one of the new mental illnesses being discussed in the DSM-5, the latest revision of psychology’s diagnostic bible. But the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) thinks the DSM-5 is too conservative. They say that porn, gambling, and even eating should be categorized along with heroin and cocaine. “Addiction is addiction,” Dr. Raju Haleja, chair of the ASAM committee, told Web site The Fix. “It doesn’t matter what cranks your brain in that direction.”

This sudden profusion of classified addictions represents a sea change in how professional caregivers see the problem.

Traditionally, addiction was viewed as essentially a moral matter, limited to a handful of vices. People drank themselves

Mind’s Eye

Hooked On Boobs Got some devious behavior you just can’t explain?

Relax, it’s only an addiction. into the gutter because they lacked the willpower or character. Responsibility lay with the addict, who must invoke a higher power, enlist the help of friends, and exert constant willful effort to defeat addiction.

But today, the medical profession sees addiction primarily as a disease caused by mechanistic forces in the brain. It needs to be treated externally, with therapy and medication—it’s beyond the individual’s power to deal with on his or her own.

Technology is partly to blame for this change, as new scanning techniques and biochemical sophistication mean we can peer into the brain as never before. We can identify which regions are involved in addiction (nucleus accumbens, basal forebrain) and its main neurotransmitter (dopamine). Even though it’s far from clear what these pieces actually do, just knowing they’re there lends confidence to the idea that the problem is essentially that of a malfunctioning machine.

Money is an even bigger factor in this philosophical shift. If I am responsible for my behavior, then I will have to foot the bill. But if my behavior is caused by an unstoppable force called “addiction,” I can get my insurance company to pay the doctor and the pharmaceutical company to rearrange my neurons for me. That’s why the DSM battle is now so heated: whatever’s included in the book will get paid for, and whatever’s left out won’t.

Amy Winehouse’s high-profile death in July reminds us just how high the stakes are. Addiction can break up families, destroy friendships, and end lives, but there are larger issues than just who gets treated and who gets paid. The decisions experts in professional committees reach will trickle down to the public, affecting how we view ourselves, our minds, and our capacity for self-control. If doctors tell us we are helpless to combat our impulses, we may just become that way.

This past October, police arrested a 35-year-old Floridian named Christopher Chaney, who they say hacked into the e-mails of over 50 celebrities, and leaked their personal information—including nude photographs of actress Scarlett Johansson—onto the Internet. After his arraignment, Chaney was contrite: “What I did was probably the worst invasion of privacy someone could experience,” he told a local TV news reporter. “I’m not trying to escape what I did. It was wrong.”

So what did he blame his behavior on, then? You guessed it: addiction. He said his celebrity hacking “started out as curiosity, and it turned to just being addictive.” The habit grew so strong he couldn’t fight it: “I was almost relieved when they came and took my computer,” said Chaney. “I didn’t know how to stop.”

He was helpless in the grip of dopamine.

So, if you don’t want to turn into a dopamine zombie, be careful—the world is full of dangers. Heroin. Cocaine. Meth.

The Rose Bowl. 1970s hairbands. M&Ms. And, yes—Scarlett Johansson’s boobs.

Jeff Wise is a journalist and the author of “Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger.”

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