Esquire articles from December 2003

Esquire archives from December 2003

Gentlemen, this is a wake up call!(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... If you want your presentation to the world to remain youthful and fit, make a habit of using BULLIE SKIN CARE SYSTEMS for Men each morning. The simple ritual includes a cleanser, after-shave, moisturizer and mask specialized for each skin type....

Movado Museum Automatic.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Introducing the new MOVADO MUSEUM AUTOMATIC, an icon of Modernism, now with a fine 21-jewel self-winding movement. The sophisticated, Swiss-engineered workings are revealed through a sapphire crystal case back. Available with a solid or 18K...

Sergio Rossi.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... SERGIO ROSSI, one of the world's leading accessory houses is expanding their presence in the United States. The Italian house, renowned for exquisitely handcrafted men's and women's shoes has recently opened flagship boutiques in New York,...

Boss Hugo Boss.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... This winter BOSS HUGO BOSS continues its emphasis on authenticity, mixing traditional elegance with unpretentious style. The line features slim-fit two-button single breasted jackets with long narrow lapels and natural shoulders. For premiere...

The sound & the fury.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... IT SEEMS FITTING THAT IN OCTOBER, Muhammad All welcomed readers to our seventieth-anniversary issue, Esquire's greatest issue of all time. Inside, we looked at the good, the bad, and the embarrassing of Esquire's history. Then we turned to the...

Superman lives.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... Also in October, contributing editor Charles P. Pierce took a revealing look back at John F. Kennedy ("JFK at 86"). Pierce concluded that JFK is alive and well, having irrevocably bridged the divide between politics and popular culture. Thank...

Superman lives. <T>The future of men.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... Five years after chronicling the life of a ninety-two-year-old man in "Old" (September 1998), writer at large Mike Sager returned to the subject of the American male in our October issue with "The Man of Tomorrow Goes to the Prom." Recording...

The falling man remembered.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... Months after it appeared, writer at large Tom Junod's article "The Falling Man" (September), about a September 11 photograph so unsettling that it was all but banished from the record, continues to elicit a stream of emotional letters from...

Lexus Style in the Fast Lane.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Last August at the 6th Annual "Lexus Style in the Fast Lane" event in Pebble Beach, California, LEXUS unveiled the new Pebble Beach Edition SC 430 hardtop convertible. NBC star Wendie Malick hosted the 1,500 guests at the fashion show who...

Elini.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Conceived to capture the essence and style of the world's ultimate city and the energy of those who inhabit it, ELINI's New Yorker Chronograph Watch collection comes in three different sizes, for him and her, and in a variety of colors to suit...

Enhance your wardrobe with Italian styling.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... ALBERTO FIORELLI shirts come in hundreds of the finest 100% Italian cotton fabrics and double thick, durable buttons. This exciting, new domestic shirt house can even make custom designs based on your measurements. The popular La Spiaggia...

Harry Benson.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... On the eve of the 40th anniversary of The Beatles coming to America, famed photographer HARRY BENSON brings us an intimate look at the legendary Beatles on their road to international superstardom with his lavish new book, ONCE THERE WAS A WAY....

Firing the imagination.(Editorial)
December 1, 2003... You might remember that we published our first Best and Brightest special issue a year ago. But the idea for it was actually born a couple years before that, when I woke up in the middle of the night worried about the future (do you ever do...

Man at his best.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Here, the essential things a man should know about Ludivine Sagnier so that he can hold his own during upcoming Ludivine Sagnier--based trivia tournaments: * Despite appearing mostly in a bra and panties throughout 2000's menage a quatre...

The awards: the 9 most remarkable things in culture this month.
December 1, 2003... A: THE 9 MOST REMARKABLE THINGS IN CULTURE THIS MONTH 1 Best Jewish Rap Lyrics "When I daven Lip front, you see me shuckle with my cuz / When I pray pretty deep, it's me and G-D up above / Ladies hear I'm in L. A., now they wanna call...

The cure: how not to be a metrosexual.(masculinity; simplifying grooming for men)
December 1, 2003... You never thought it could happen to you. You started out with a single pomade, and now you've become softer than that kale-scented man lotion you rub under your eyes three times a day. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Actually, there...

The endorsement: the shiner.(masculinity; advantages of a black eye )(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PAIN. YOU can throw out your back so severely that you want to cry every time you tie your shoes, but all you're ever gonna get for your invisible anguish is geriatric jokes. A spasmodic disk will never, ever get...

The rules.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Rule No. 43: Soccer would be a lot more fun if everybody used their hands. Rule No. 354: People who whine about smoking are just slightly less annoying than people who whine about a ban on smoking. Rule No. 649: The allure of strip clubs...

30+7 ways to improve the world.(the list)
December 1, 2003... In honor of the Best and Brightest issue, we give you our own best and brightest ideas 1. Freedom for Cuba: an embargo on Cuba Gooding Jr. 2. Sushi-style hot towels before every meal, in every restaurant. 3. A law that requires...

The most useful watch ever?(BMW Memory watch)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Well, that depends. If you're constantly finding yourself 50 meters underwater with your air tanks running low, then no. (Consider a diver's watch.) The new BMW Memory watch won't save your life, but it will save you from having to e-mail files...

Building a better German.
December 1, 2003... I SPENT SOME TIME IN GERMANY RECENTLY, and let me tell you: Some stereotypes are there for a reason. The cuisine made me shed a pound a day (I'm no fan of blood sausage, nor do I appreciate the liberal use of herring and cream), and any...

CarTech: how to watch TV while driving.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... IF A CELL PHONE, NAVIGATION SYSTEM, and XM radio aren't enough distractions for you, we've got a solution: satellite TV for your car. The new TracVision A5 (kvh.com) features a pancake-shaped antenna that snaps on to the roof rack of most SUVs...

One more for your shelf.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... ONE MORE FOR YOUR SHELF Photographer Nell Leifer has shot 15 Olympic Games, 10 Super Bowls, 15 Kentucky Derbies, and four World Cups. He's snapped world leaders (JFK), murderers (Charles Manson), communists (Castro), and whatever the hell you'd...

The 2003 dubious achievements of movie blurbs.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... 1) We haven't laughed harder at any blurb this year. 2) We're not sure he saw the movie, but he definitely saw the title. 3) Also, Windtalkers is much better than that Casablanca piece of shit. 4) Which decades exactly? 5) As...

Big important book of the month.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... IN 1999, ART CRITIC ROBERT HUGHES was in a near-fatal car crash, while in intensive care, he had a particularly odd hallucination: that the Spanish painter Goya attached a metal brace to his leg and forced him to crawl through a metal detector....

The Amis-o-meter.(opinions about 'Yellow Dog' by Martin Amis)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... MARTIN AMIS has written his first novel in seven years, a book called Yellow Dog (Miramax Books, $25), about an ideal husband who suffers a head injury and morphs into an evil bastard. When it was released earlier this year in England, the book...

Restaurant gimmick of the month.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Tucked in a corner of New York's Biltmore Room is possibly the world's first cell-phone booth. The swank new restaurant and lounge brought in an old Biltmore Hotel phone booth, removed the plastic phone, and added insulation. All signals work...

(The Lexicon) banh mi\BON mee\(noun).(Restaurant Review)
December 1, 2003... STRANGELY ADDICTIVE Vietnamese submarine sandwich, described colloquially as "cheesesteak meets spring rolls." Americanized versions are popping up everywhere from fusion restaurants to food courts, but purists prefer those sold for three...

The man who runs restaurants for men.(Brief Article)(Interview)
December 1, 2003... KEN ARETSKY has been a New York restaurateur since "infusions" meant cocktails and the Food Network was nothing but three guys who sold prime beef. In the '70s he opened Oren & Aretsky, a steak house. In the '80s he ran "21." And last month he...

Hookers, bank shirts, severed heads & hookers.(answer Fella)
December 1, 2003... ESQUIRE'S ANSWER FELLA believes that there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who don't ask questions, fearing they'll look stupid. So ask Answer Fella anything. If he doesn't know the answer, he'll find out who does, or who has a...

The Esquire gift guide.
December 1, 2003... Know what you're getting for your girl this year? How about for that crazy uncle? We know: Shopping is hell. That s why we asked experts what they're giving this year. Chef Bobby Flay recommends food gifts. Tom Arnold offers solutions for...

Things we won't be covering this month.(Brief Article)(Column)
December 1, 2003... The Jelly Donut Diet Book, by Judge Lawrence Grey... Dungeons & Dragons Heroes a new game from Atari In the Paint" Tattoos of the NBA and the Stories Behind Them, by Andrew Gottieb... Boxing Day... The E! True Hollywood Story." Rock Star...

7 ways to be entertained in ... Dec.(Calendar)
December 1, 2003... A Shoot-'Em-Up Mercifully, there are no aliens or orcs in Dead Man's Hand, a first-person shooter set in the Old West. It's a scenario long overdue and true to form, complete with barroom brawls and fancy-pants trick shots. Tossing the virtual...

The truth about Kobe: in his very first column, the author has a small confession to make.(Column)
December 1, 2003... IN HIS OWN CRAZY, GUILELESS, AND wildly inappropriate way, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was absolutely right about Kobe Bryant and the charges against him: This is indeed good for business, sad as that might seem. I have obsessively...

California dreamin'.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... AS A FORMER ESQUIRE INTERN, I've sifted through more than my share of unsolicited submissions. Which made me uniquely qualified to watch The AMC Project: Malkovich's Mail--the story of five unknown screenwriters whose driving ambition is to get...

Mr. Uncongeniality: this fall, Mystic River reminded us that Sean Penn is one hell of an actor. What we still don't know is what he thinks that's good for.(Movie Review)
December 1, 2003... IN A HOLLYWOOD POLL OF ACTING genius, Sean Penn would probably win going away. But one reason his outsized gifts haven't produced a career to match is that, in the great tradition of intense performers, he's ill-equipped to appreciate that big...

Ed Zwick.(Interview)(Column)
December 1, 2003... Director Ed Zwick has already proven he can make respectable period actors out of Hollywood leading men. In 1989, he directed Denzel in his Oscar-winning performance in Glory; he returned to the 19th century five years later with Legends of the...

Barry Sonnenfeld's gadget of the month.(Brief Article)(Column)
December 1, 2003... WELL, SWEETIE (THE WIFE) AND I HAVE RETURNED from Telluride, Colorado, and are back in the Hamptons for the fall, winter, and spring, which are the best times to experience them. You can even make left turns on Route 27. We recently had the joy...

10 things you don't know about women.
December 1, 2003... 1. Yes, we want to change how you dress, but it doesn't mean that we're trying to change you. You have the soul of a poet and a really hot ass, but those pleated khakis make you look like our tenth-grade chemistry teacher. 2. You aren't...

God help us: we beseeched prayer groups to ask that we have greater success at sex, fishing, poker, and other real-life pursuits a special Esquire theological experiment.
December 1, 2003... THE SCIENTISTS AT ESQUIRE HAVE BEEN following the rash of studies on the power of prayer. We've noticed these studies have been conducted by respected institutions with names like Harvard, Duke, and Johns Hopkins. We've noticed some of these...

Don't call it a comeback: Al Green's first secular recording in nearly a decade finds the original soul man singing his ass off and dripping with sweat.(Sound Recording Review)
December 1, 2003... AL GREEN IS A MAN OF GREAT DIGNITY. But there's nothing remotely dignified about comeback records. The formula is too simple: record recycled songs with modern pop artists that will sell and offend no one. In fact, I'm fairly sure that at...

Pearl Jam: an essay, of sorts, in which the author and his dog weigh the pros and cons of castration vasectomy, and other drastic measures.(Column)
December 1, 2003... GROWN MEN ARE BABIES, AS GROWN women know. Relentlessly seeking out pleasure, we whimper and shrink back from pain. We may no longer drool, but I still we come crawling on hands and knees (or staggering sideways), always on the lookout for...

What is it about nurses? Maids? Twins? Amputees?
December 1, 2003... I'm going to guess that when you say "nurses, maids, twins, amputees," you are referring to sexual predilections and not the staff of Neverland Ranch. Whether any of these are technically a fetish, which the Encyclopaedia Britannica defines as...

Forward thinking: are you smart enough for this issue?(Editorial)
December 1, 2003... OKAY, GENIUS, on this and the following pages you'll find eight interrelated puzzles. Each of the first seven puzzles will yield a four-letter answer and a seven-letter answer. Those answers, in turn, will be used in the final puzzle, on page...

Rest stop: the evening's great mistake was pulling into this one.
December 1, 2003... HE SUPPOSED THAT AT SOME POINT between Jacksonville and Sarasota he did a literary version of the old Clark-Kent-in-the-phone-booth routine, but he wasn't sure just where or how. Which suggested it wasn't very dramatic. So did it even matter?...

Canali, Saks Fifth Avenue and Esquire cocktail reception celebrating the National Hockey League Season.
December 1, 2003... On Thursday, September 25th, Canali, Saks Fifth Avenue and Esquire hosted a cocktail reception celebrating the national hockey league season. Over 200 guests joined New Jersey Devils hockey stars Martin Brodeur, Scott Gomez, Grant Marshall...

Freestyle.
December 1, 2003... This winter's hot clothes are made from high-tech fabrics that are as stylish on the street as they are functional in the snow. To demonstrate. Esquire hits the slopes with the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team and puts the theory to the test, on the...

American exceptionalism.
December 1, 2003... Last year, I was surprised and humbled to be included in Esquire's Best & Brightest issue--and I hoped this distinction would confer upon me the hipness a father so desperately wants his children to believe he has. Alas, my kids still think the...

Will Ferrell.(Interview)
December 1, 2003... Behind the sophomoric slapstick lie a misunderstood comic genius, an underappreciated thespian brilliance, an introspective soul striving to... oh, never mind. The dude is funny, all right. THE TOUGHEST PART of talking to Will Ferrell is...

The sound laser.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... INVENTOR WOODY NORRIS has developed a revolutionary technology called HyperSonic Sound that can direct sound the way a laser directs light. In the sound beam's direct line, you hear the audio signal as if through headphones, regardless of...

Chris Wedge.
December 1, 2003... It takes a guy (and a company) based in the dowdy suburbs of New York to teach Hollywood (mid Palo Alto) how to make animated movies. In the process, he's ushered in the golden age of robots. JUST OVER a year from now, kids across America...

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
December 1, 2003... His films will make you squirm. They may depress you. And they will jolt you into realizing that 99 percent of movies are as bland as tapioca. MEXICAN-BORN FILMMAKER Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu traffics in dramatic reverberation, but the...

The virtual keyboard.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... DEVELOPED BY ENGINEERS at the Son Jose electronics firm Canesta, the so-called Keyboard Perception Chipset generates a Loser image that is projectable onto any flat surface and can be typed on just like a regular keyboard. An infrared light...

Theo Epstein.
December 1, 2003... The youngest proponent of a radical way of building a sports team is moving baseball--and one of its most storied franchises--into the modern era OLD BASE BALL GUYS look like they've been carved by the Borglums--weather-beaten, wrinkled,...

A mob of young.(Actresses.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A MOB OF YOUNG, short-skirted women is right now vying for your attention at the movie theater. In case you hadn't noticed--and it's possible you were distracted by those short skirts--not all of them are brilliant actresses. In fact, a good...

Alison Lohman.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... (Alison Lohman) age 24 White Oleander, Big Fish MOMENT OF GENIUS: The tantrum in Matchstick Men. As the daughter of Nic Cage's can man, Lohman is drafted to create a distracting ruckus at an L. A. airport bar. She stamps. She throws up...

Kerry Washington.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... (Kerry Washington) age 26 Our Song, The Human Stain, Save the Lost Dance MOMENT OF GENIUS: The showdown in Lift. Washington plays an entrepreneurial shoplifter who has a god-awful relationship with her mother. In this dinner-table...

Scarlett Johansson.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... (Scarlett Johonsson) age 19 The Horse Whisperer, Girl with a Pearl Earring MOMENT OF GENIUS: The koraoke scene in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. Johansson plays a newlywed who befriends Bill Murray's burned-out movie star. When...

The Polyphonic Spree.
December 1, 2003... It's safe to say that you have never seen or heard anything quite like the Polyphonic Spree. And while a band of hippies in white robes singing about sunshine may sound like just more two-bit rock novelty, the Spree is easily the most original...

Nic Harcourt's playlist for the future.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... IN THE WORLD of music, a handful of tastemakers can make or break o musician's career. The most artistically savvy of them all is Nic Harcourt, music director at legendary radio station KCRW in Los Angeles. His show, Morning Becomes Eclectic,...

Derek Sivers.
December 1, 2003... Even with CD sales in the tank and piracy the issue of the day, the music industry has ignored what should be both its bread and butter (new talent) and the basis of a new business model (sharing the wealth). Fortunately, Derek Sivers has...

Colum McCann.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Colum McCann's Dancer may be the one truly great novel published in 2003--so dramatic, richly imagined, and fully alive that it reminds you of why you read fiction in the first place. McCann's fifth book, it is the brilliantly fictionalized...

All That Rises, All That Falls.(Column)
December 1, 2003... ONE OF THE many things my father loved about my mother was that she was a natural musician. He kept a small Victrola on top of the piano in the living room, and on Sunday afternoons, after playing a record through a few times, he raised the...

Maile Meloy.(Interview)
December 1, 2003... Last June, thirty-one-year-old Maile Meloy published her breathtaking first novel, Liars and Saints. Deftly exhibiting the time-honored tenets of storytelling--precise characterization, intricate plot lines, hard-won verisimilitude--the book...

Jennifer Siegal.
December 1, 2003... Architecture doesn't move--physically pick up and move--is just so second millennium. We're living in a mobile world, and if not just individuals but entire communities can't keep up when they need to, then what good are they? JENNIFER...

Ed Feiner.
December 1, 2003... As chief of the biggest federal building program since the New Deal, this cowboy-booted guy from the Bronx is recruiting the most adventurous talents in design and architecture and redefining the way our government looks THE MOST POWERFUL...

Denver Brooker.(Culture; architect's restrooms appreciated)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Everybody loves a beautiful, rest stop 1-80, THE OHIO TURNPIKE, my own Mother Rood, is a straight, flat blacktop pocked with the skankiest travel plazas west of New Jersey. I left Cleveland in 1984, end I've been driving back from elsewhere...

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
December 1, 2003... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is a total anomaly in our government or any other. Creative by nature, revolutionary in its imaginings, it's the brain at the beginning of the future. FOR SOME OF THEM, the future begins with...

Safety spice.(Inventions; antibacterial powder blocks harmful effects of foodborne bacteria)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA chemist Hoon Sunwoo has invented on antibacterial powder, known simply as "the spice," that you can sprinkle on meals to block the harmful effects of foodborne bacteria. The spice is a cocktail, of antibodies called...

Adam Riess.
December 1, 2003... Observing the farthest-flung supernovas from the confines of his office in Baltimore, the world's foremost stargazer is fundamentally changing how we understand our universe--its age, its contents, its scope, and, most of all, its destroy Meet...

Janine Benyus.(Science & Industry)
December 1, 2003... When the mother of "biomimicry" looks at nature, she sees more than flora and fauna. She sees biology inspiring the next generation of product and design innovations for both individuals and industry. IT'S 2010 AND YOU'RE OUT on your...

Anne De Groot.(Interview)
December 1, 2003... My vaccine for AIDS There is no cookbook for creating a protection against AIDS. With old vaccines, you'd take the polio, for example, bake it in a chemical until it was dead, then inject it. But with the AIDS vaccine--first of all,...

Paul Moller.
December 1, 2003... The problem? Every year we add five million cars to American roads but very few new roads to carry them. The roads we do have are in the worst state of disrepair ever. The solution? You're looking at it. THE LITTLE AEROBOT looks like a keg...

Super grass.(Inventions)(paspalum)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... SEASHORE PASPALUIM first came across the Atlantic on slave ships from West Africa, it is believed, and thrived in coastal areas--an oddity, as most grasses despise saltwater. Now turf scientists at the University of Georgia have bred paspalum...

Joshua Spodek.(Inventions)
December 1, 2003... The next revolution in advertising will be televised--on the subway And Submedia is but one example of the ingenious, subversive ways in which marketers will invade your life. EVERY NEW AMERICAN generation becomes the most-marketed-to...

Reed Hastings.(Science & Industry)
December 1, 2003... This man is taking from Blockbuster and giving back to you. And in the process, he's created a whole new business model based on vegging out. THOSE IN THE CHARITY business agree: Of all the world's misfortunes, none is quite so distressing...

Smart paint.(Inventions)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... THE GOAL: to create point that self-repairs when cracks appear and that can change color at the push of a button. U.S. Army scientists are working with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to embed paint with tiny machines made from carbon...

Jeffrey Sachs.(Society)
December 1, 2003... The world's most powerful governments--the U.S. chief among them--have failed to save the world. So Jeffrey Sachs is going to go ahead and do it himself. TONIGHT AT THE LECTURE HALL at Columbia University every seat is filled and there's...

Glenn Fine.(Society)
December 1, 2003... In a time of crisis, when everybody wants to bend the law in the name of protecting us, this is the guy who bends it back IN THE AFTERMATH of September 11, one man chose to do something that required a bravery America did not ask even of...

Steven Aftergood.(Society)
December 1, 2003... The federal government has hundreds of millions of secrets. Some matter and many don't. But one man is lighting a candle in all that darkness. IT'S NOT YET NOON in Washington, D. C., and already Steven Aftergood is rumpled. He is searching...

Congressmen Kendrick Meek, Harold Ford Jr., and Jesse Jackson Jr.
December 1, 2003... These sons of African-American leaders have two things their parents didn't: a legacy to build on and an agenda that is defined more by their youth than their race WITH A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION a year away, a powerful voting bloc is...

Nicco Mele.
December 1, 2003... Henceforth, behind every great presidential candidate you will find a greet Webmaster WE'VE ALL HEARD how Howard Dean's campaign for president has shaken a million small trees end come up with record sums of money for a Democratic...

David Carmel.
December 1, 2003... At age twenty-six, after starting one of the most effective public-service organizations in the country, the author broke his neck. Five years later, he is busier than ever. A call to service MY FIRST SERVICE EXPERIENCE was working as a...

Bobby Jindal.
December 1, 2003... The new face of southern politics is the Republican son of Indian immigrants "I'M IN A CAR ON THE WAY to New Orleans," Bobby Jindal says via cell phone, raising his voice above the highway noise. "The momentum of the campaign seems...