2022年3月16日 星期三

The T List: Five things we recommend this week

An ASL-inspired mural, a miniature wearable bouquet — and more.

Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we're eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday. And you can always reach us at tlist@nytimes.com.

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A Mural for the Moment

Christine Sun Kim's "Time Owes Me Rest Again" (2022).Hai Zhang

By Julia Bozzone

T Contributor

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"It seems like everyday life is getting more and more brutal," says the Berlin-based American artist Christine Sun Kim. Indeed, she conceived of her new 100-foot mural, "Time Owes Me Rest Again" (2022), while mulling the Covid-19 crisis, rampant inequality, environmental collapse and the crushing effects of capitalism. The installation, which just opened at the Queens Museum in New York, consists of black-and-white graphic renderings of the American Sign Language hand motions for the five words in the piece's title — all of which require the signer's hands to come into contact with another part of the body — alongside those same words printed in English. Kim, who is Deaf, is interested in exploring multisensory ways of depicting sound and in helping Deaf existence penetrate hearing culture. Though she didn't originally intend for the markings to resemble shooting stars, clouds and rainbows, she's pleased that they do and describes the work as "a score disguised as a series of shapes." As for the title phrase itself, Kim, who is a mother of one, was struck by how her American friends work long hours, sometimes at more than one job, and never feel relaxed in their roles as parents. "Time is made to be a luxury," she says. "But, ideally, it shouldn't be." queensmuseum.org

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A Flower-Holding Brooch

A brooch for flowers, the collaboration of florist Marsano, jewelry designer Sabrina Dehoff and König Souvenir.Left: Matthias Leidinger. Right: courtesy of Sabrina Dehoff

By Alison Hugill

T Contributor

For Berliners, there are few things more coveted than a bouquet from Marsano, an artisanal florist located on the border of the city's Kreuzberg and Mitte districts and known for its commitment to sourcing its blooms as regionally and sustainably as possible. Last year, the team there paired with the German jewelry designer Sabrina Dehoff and König Souvenir — a shop born out of a collaboration between Berlin's König Galerie and its network of artists and makers — to create a petite vessel that facilitates wearing one's love for blooms on one's sleeve or, as is perhaps more likely, one's lapel: This silver-plated brooch resembles paper wrapped around the stems of an arrangement, its folds achieved through a process of casting and hand polishing. The idea is that wearers will fill the conical piece with whatever flora is on hand or aligns with a particular outfit or occasion. They can start, however, with the seasonal Marsano-made posies that come with each purchase and transform the brooch from mere statement piece to mobile aromatherapy unit. $156, koenig.art

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SMELL THIS

Scents Steeped in Family History

The Bernard line of scented candles from the Los Angeles design firm Nickey Kehoe, including Cleome, with notes of grapefruit and fresh-cut grass, and the geranium- and cardamom-inflected Oro.Courtesy of Nickey Kehoe

By Kerstin Czarra

T Contributor

Todd Nickey and Amy Kehoe, the team behind the Los Angeles design studio and home décor boutique Nickey Kehoe, found a muse for their line of candles and perfume oils in the grandfather Nickey never got to meet. "He was a gentleman who believed in style, not as a superficial gesture but as a guiding force," says Nickey. A wealthy bon vivant in 1930s Germany, Bernard Niktschemny (later shortened to Nickey) survived a concentration camp before starting over in the United States. The five fragrances that make up the line, named in his honor, were also inspired by Nickey's own wanderlust and the places he believes his relative would have traveled to if he'd had the chance: Meli evokes the sun-kissed souks of Morocco with jasmine, leather and honey, while Eira's top notes of pinewood, clove and coffee conjure a cozy Scandinavian cabin in the winter. The candles and oils arrive swaddled in a printed cotton cloth that resembles the handkerchiefs Bernard once carried. Also available is the first book of Nickey Kehoe interiors, "Golden Light" (2020), which highlights the duo's warm, witty designs, including Nickey's own Spanish-style abode in Pasadena, Calif., and a colorful ranch house bordering the Pacific in Malibu. Candles and perfume oils, from $98-$108; "Golden Light," $55, nickeykehoe.com

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A Geometric Light Fixture With a Soft Glow

From left: Workstead's Tube pendant and sconce lights in hewn brass.Jeff Holt

By Megan O'Sullivan

T Contributor

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Founded in 2009, the design firm Workstead quickly became known for the tailored millwork and cool, lived-in feel it brought to such projects as Brooklyn's Wythe Hotel and the renovation of a mid-19th-century American cottage in Gallatin, N.Y. In all its projects, the lights, whether delicate chandeliers or ample globe pendants, are a particular point of focus, and so it made perfect sense that the firm's three founders — Robert Highsmith, Stefanie Brechbuehler and Ryan Mahoney — soon started crafting their own. The latest addition to the line is the soon-to-launch Tube collection, which consists of a pendant and a vanity sconce both anchored by a single handblown glass cylinder paired with a brass, bronze or nickel sphere affixed to either end. It's modern-looking while also harking back to midcentury styles, examples of which Highsmith often comes across while antiquing in and around Workstead's office in Hudson. "I'll find a spark while cruising the shops and take it back to the drawing board in order to provoke some aspect of that in modern-day form," he says. In this case, the glass conceals a custom LED panel and is coated with a matte finish, which gives the 270-degree range of light a soft, warm quality. workstead.com

WEAR THIS

A Crisp Button-Down by Comme Si

From left: button-down shirts in chocolate brown and white from the collaboration between Danielle Goldberg and Jenni Lee of Comme Si.Courtesy of Comme Si

By Zoe Ruffner

T Contributor

Though the stylist Danielle Goldberg is known for dressing celebrities such as Laura Harrier and Katherine Waterston in glittering gowns, with her own outfits, she often sticks to vintage men's button-downs that she has taken in to fit her frame. Now, thanks to a collaboration with Comme Si — which was founded by Jenni Lee in 2019 and sells simple but impeccable socks and boxers rendered in Egyptian cotton and Mongolian cashmere — Goldberg has designed her own version of the sartorial essential, no alterations necessary. "It has that great fit of an old shirt but feels like it was actually tailored to you," says Lee, who together with Goldberg spent 14 months refining a slightly oversize shape available in three shades — white, black and chocolate brown — of crisp Italian cotton made to soften with every wash. Free of pockets and venting, which the pair consider superfluous, the shirt does have a wide cuff, tonal buttons and a structured — but not stiff — collar. And, when tucked in, it can sit securely open at the top — revealing an undershirt, bra or bare décolletage — thanks to a discreet, ingenious snap. "I wanted to give people the freedom to style it however they want," says Goldberg. "That's ultimately what makes a button-down so great." $295, commesi.com

FROM T'S INSTAGRAM

A Cake That Tastes Like Milk and Cookies

The writer bakes a version of the cookbook author Tessa Huff's layered confection — making sure not to skimp on ingredients and opting for pink frosting — in remembrance of her late brother, Joel.Scott J. Ross

Roxane Gay is mastering the art of cake decorating. "When the pandemic started, I decided to begin teaching myself," says the writer. So far, she has nailed base coats, florets and borders. According to Gay, there is still room for improvement. "I cannot make a frosting rose to save my life and I have no artistic ability, so pretty much all my decorated cakes look the same," she says. "But it's fine because they taste great." As for the cakes themselves, Gay has been studiously taste testing different recipes over the past two years. The cake she most wants to share with the world is an elegant but simple version inspired by the timeless pairing of milk and cookies that she found in the 2019 cookbook "Icing on the Cake," by the Vancouver-based baker and cookbook author Tessa Huff. "It's a real crowd-pleaser," Gay says of the confection, whose alternating layers of fluffy vanilla cake and chocolate-chip filling are finished with a blended buttercream frosting. "It actually tastes like milk and cookies." Read the full story on tmagazine.com, and follow us on Instagram.

Correction: Last week's newsletter misstated which Maiden Name founder curates their collection of objects; it is David Lê, not both Lê and Alix Freireich. (Freireich designs the store's women's wear line.) The newsletter also misspelled the given name of an artist; he is Lukas Stopczynski, not Lucas.

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2022年3月11日 星期五

The Daily: The Nuclear Question

You asked about the threat. And we answered.
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By Lauren Jackson

Associate Audience Editor, Audio

Last week, we asked you to share with us how the news lately had left you feeling — and what questions you were still asking. Many of you wrote in saying that you felt "sad," "worried" and "helpless," and that you were questioning what could come next in this conflict. Specifically, many of you wrote in with questions about the prospect of nuclear warfare.

It's a big, scary thought, one that has shaped foreign policy in the abstract for decades. But now it feels more proximate. So we want to try to tackle some of your questions.

The big idea: The nuclear question

The Daily strives to reveal a new idea in every episode. Below, we go deeper on our show from today about President Vladimir Putin's endgame.

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A worker inside the safe confinement covering over the No. 4 reactor at Chernobyl, in Ukraine, in 2021.Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA, via Shutterstock

He thought this would be easy.

President Vladimir Putin anticipated Russian tanks would roll in and overwhelm Ukraine. He claimed his troops might even be welcomed in some corners of the country.

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What he didn't anticipate was the surging nationalism of the Ukrainian people; the world-galvanizing leadership shown by President Volodymyr Zelensky; the perception of the invasion as an attack on democratic liberalism more broadly; the reunification of polarized, fractured Western alliances; or the reinvigoration of NATO. Overnight, seemingly the entire world turned against him, resulting in comprehensive public and private sanctions that have crippled his country and thrown his power into question.

In short, he's backed into a corner. And as everyone is saying, a corner is a dangerous place to put Putin. With dwindling options for military success in Ukraine, how will he save face? Will he lash out? And in this lashing, will he turn to Russia's nuclear arsenal?

Below, we answer three of your questions on the topic from our inbox:

Are we on the brink of nuclear war?

When asked this question, President Biden had a curt answer: "No."

After the invasion of Ukraine, Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces into a higher state of alert, the first time the Kremlin had done so since the Russian Federation was established in 1991. This came after issuing thinly veiled threats of a nuclear attack should any foreign power try to stop him from war.

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America appears to be calling Russia's bluff (or at least the Biden administration wants to appear stoic in the face of a real threat). Still, Russia and the U.S. control 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, so any talk of a nuclear attack raises questions no one has seriously been asking since the end of the Cold War.

Since that time, the doctrine of "mutually assured destruction" — that no state will start a nuclear war because sure retaliation would put its own fate in question — has kept nuclear weapons from being launched. While the threat being issued by Putin should be taken seriously, experts say, this doctrine should still hold. After all, Putin's goal is to reclaim former Soviet glory, which would be hard to do if Moscow was jeopardized by retaliatory nuclear missiles.

What other nuclear risks exist?

But this doesn't mean there aren't other nuclear concerns to be thinking about. One particular concern is the safety of the nuclear waste caught in the crossfire in Ukraine.

Specifically, atomic experts have been carefully watching the state of the Chernobyl nuclear facility which recently came under Russian control. Chernobyl was the scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history when one of its four reactors exploded and burned 36 years ago, and the long-defunct plant in Ukraine is completely dependent on outside sources of electricity. Experts were alarmed this week when the plant lost outside power, posing grave concerns over the storage of nuclear waste in the long term.

However, Ukraine's nuclear power agency said on Friday that more diesel fuel had been delivered to power backup generators that monitor and safeguard the large amount of radioactive waste there. The question is: As the war rolls on with no definite end in sight, can Russia ensure the safety of the waste at Chernobyl — and protect Europe from another nuclear disaster?

Is the risk for nuclear war heightened in the long term?

Bryan Walsh of Vox claimed that the war in Ukraine could portend the end of the "long peace" — the holiday from humanity's tremendously violent history that the world has enjoyed for the last few decades.

While it's too soon to say whether his predictions will come true, some experts have warned that the specter of nuclear war from a great power could force smaller states to think about whether they need to acquire nuclear weapons for self-protection. For example, a majority of South Koreans have come to favor the development of a domestic nuclear weapons program to protect against attacks from China or North Korea. Zelensky of Ukraine said that his country had made a mistake in abandoning the nuclear weapons it had inherited from the Soviet Union.

The war in Ukraine has also halted efforts to revive a nuclear agreement with Iran, and it risks scuttling the agreement entirely. The breakdown will allow Iran to move closer to the ability to build a nuclear bomb.

"I sense a period ending," Mary Elise Sarotte, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in The Times. "I am now deeply afraid that Mr. Putin's recklessness may cause the years between the Cold War and the Covid-19 pandemic to seem a halcyon period to future historians, compared with what came after. I fear we may find ourselves missing the old Cold War."

From the Daily team: Composing the sounds of loss — and nostalgia — in Ukraine

Compiled by Mahima Chablani

News Assistant, Audio

On Monday's episode, we listened to the Daily host Sabrina Tavernise as she journeyed from Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, to Lviv — a trip that took two days and two nights. One of our composers, Marion Lozano, created the music for the episode, and we wanted to share the story behind two of the motifs that you may recall hearing.

This song is occasionally used as a replacement to the main Daily theme song. But "it's more ominous," Marion said. "The main instrumentation is a piano and it's layered with ambient pads."

We asked Lynsea Garrison, one of our producers, what compelled her to choose "Slow Burn" when she was scoring the episode. "I just loved that it wasn't overly sorrowful; it had a hint of something more wistful in it, almost a bittersweet nostalgia," Lynsea said. "I wanted to use it especially under the scene when Sabrina is asking people about the lives they've left behind in the cars driving past. They were leaving behind their lives almost as fast as they were telling Sabrina about it, and I wanted something spare that evoked a deeper longing."

This song is played throughout the entire episode. Here's how Marion described it to us:

It was originally written to tie up the loose ends of a tragic story. The song contains an arpeggiating synth that plays throughout the whole song, and at times it's layered with a piano. There are also woodwind swells and piano chords that guide the song along and really tug at the listener's curiosity of 'is there light at the end of this tunnel?'

On The Daily this week

Monday: We went on the road with Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country.

Tuesday: Why Zelensky poses a unique threat to Putin.

Friday: What is Putin's endgame? Our colleague in Opinion, Ezra Klein, asked Fiona Hill, a national security expert.

That's it for the Daily newsletter. See you next week.

Have thoughts about the show? Tell us what you think at thedaily@nytimes.com.

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