Anne Pasternak has wasted no time since taking over as director of the Brooklyn Museum last September.

Over the past seven months she engineered an overhaul of three sections of the museum’s permanent-collection galleries—the results go on view Thursday—and hired a new chief curator, Nancy Spector, away from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Ms. Pasternak also greenlighted a project by the conceptual artist Jeremy Deller in which rock star Iggy Pop posed nude for a life-drawing class. The sketches will be shown at the museum this fall.

The last is the kind of curatorial touch that characterized Ms. Pasternak’s reign at Creative Time, the New York public arts nonprofit she led for more than two decades.

Yet these days, Ms. Pasternak said, her attention is fixed on the bigger picture: raising money and growing the museum’s board of trustees while making sure an institution known for populist programming remains both relevant and academically rigorous.

The overall goal is to be “nimble,” she said at a briefing last week in her violet-walled office with Ms. Spector and Kevin Stayton, the museum’s deputy director and director of collections history. The word is something of a mantra for Ms. Pasternak, who appears bent on shaking off the cobwebs at an institution that traces its roots back to 1823.

On her to-do list: hiring more curators. “We have tremendous collections, we’re representing 5,500 years of human creativity, and we have a very small curatorial team,” said Ms. Pasternak.

She also wants boost the number of exhibitions that originate at the museum and then tour elsewhere, such as 2014’s “Killer Heels” show or the 2015 overview of African-American painter Kehinde Wiley.

All that costs money. The Brooklyn Museum’s operating budget is about $37 million, much less than wealthier institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum of Art have at their disposal.

Cash for new acquisitions is also in short supply. Ms. Spector, who joined the museum this month, said its leaders are holding off on such purchases for now as they assess the collection and map out future priorities in areas such as contemporary art, where prices have skyrocketed.

The first shows under Ms. Spector’s direction won’t appear until the summer of 2017, at the earliest.

Before Ms. Pasternak started, she embarked on what she called a “listening tour,” attending parties and functions in the neighborhoods surrounding the museum and asking passersby their opinions.

“They wanted to see us really paying attention to the permanent collection,” she said.

Those marching orders come as a number of New York museums, including MoMA and the Whitney Museum of American Art, are taking a fresh look at their collections.

In Brooklyn, the revamped American, European and ancient Egyptian galleries are the museum’s first such reinstallations since 2003. Those efforts can take years to plan, but here, the curators did it in seven months.

“The team has really been hustling,” Ms. Pasternak said. “If we don’t like something, we can change it next week. If we want to redo it in six months from now—I know they’ll probably kill me—we’ll do it in six months from now.”

This first pass is less of a makeover than a make-under meant to highlight the art and strip away distractions.

Curators pared back the number of objects on display in the American and European sections by about 35% and 20%, respectively. The European gallery now mixes paintings with works on paper and sculpture, including several Rodin bronzes. Some new pieces were also rotated in, from Native American artifacts to a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, on temporary loan from a private collector.

In the museum’s East Wing galleries of ancient Egyptian art, decorative elements meant to evoke Egyptian architecture were removed, and the original proportions designed by the architects McKim, Mead & White were restored.

“Our assignment was to make the walls disappear,” said curator Edward Bleiberg. “You have essentially the same objects that were here before. Now you can see them.”

The reinstallations organized the collection around new themes. For example, portions of the Egyptian galleries now examine African culture’s influence on the Nile Valley and ancient Egypt as a multicultural society.

The European gallery was divided into sections such as “The Nude,” “The Sacred: Religious Art” and “The Menacing Landscape” to reflect what curator Richard Aste calls “European identity-making.”

The refreshed American galleries begin with a section on “The Americas’ First Peoples” and explore historical themes such as manifest destiny and the westward expansion.

The final section, “Beyond Borders and Boundaries,” spans the 20th century. It includes works by Marsden Hartley and Isamu Noguchi, and closes with a 9-by-12-foot Mickalene Thomas painting from 2007 of a nude black woman fashioned from acrylic, rhinestones and enamel.

“The idea is that people will see their own histories,” Ms. Pasternak said. “We are really asking the question of who is American.”

Write to Jennifer Smith at jennifer.smith@wsj.com

Summary: Anne Pasternak has wasted no time since taking over as director of the Brooklyn Museum last September, hiring a new chief curator and engineering an overhaul of three galleries at the museum, on view Thursday.


Just two months ago, the International Energy Agency warned that the global oil market could “drown in oversupply.” But according to a Wall Street Journal report, a large portion of the problematic oversupply that is worrying traders and potentially holding down oil prices is also nowhere to be found.

The IEA was unable to account for 800,000 barrels of crude per day last year—the highest level of missing crude in 17 years.

The missing crude could simply be a figment of statistics, showing up in the agency’s data due to flawed accounting. But stockpiles could also be building up in non-OECD countries, like China, for which the IEA does not keep such rigorous data.

If the oversupply has been exaggerated and those barrels don’t exist, market analysts say that the oil market could tighten substantially. Crude prices have wallowed at their lowest point in more than a decade over the course of a nearly-two-year crash marked by concern about oversupply.

Summary: The status of this missing crude could mean a lot for the global oil market.


An enigmatic businessman closely linked to a controversial Malaysian state fund has liquidated two of his best-known investments in the U.S., including a $35 million painting of a pair of drug addicts by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The sales by Jho Low, a 34-year-old investor, come as the Federal Bureau of Investigation is actively examining his financial dealings in the U.S. and abroad, according to people familiar with the situation. Investigators believe at least some of the money Mr. Low used for his art and real-estate purchases came from the Malaysian fund, according to the people.

Mr. Low helped set up the fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, seven years ago along with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. There are at least six investigations under way across the world into transactions related to 1MDB, including the FBI’s probe.

Last month, Mr. Low unloaded the masterpiece of his onetime $300 million art collection in a private sale brokered by Sotheby’s . Basquiat’s 1982 “Dustheads” was sold to Connecticut hedge-fund manager Daniel Sundheim for $35 million, according to three people familiar with the deal.

That same month, Mr. Low agreed to sell his stake in the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan for an undisclosed price, according to people familiar with the matter. In 2013, Mr. Low put up roughly $175 million, for about 45% of the equity, when a group including him purchased the Park Lane for $654 million. The 46-story hotel sits in a coveted location overlooking Central Park. His sale of the stake to a venture including the Hong Kong subsidiary of China’s Greenland Holding Group Co. hasn’t been completed.

Since February 2015, Mr. Low has sold at least $205 million of art, including the Basquiat and several pieces by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet that he auctioned for less than Sotheby’s estimates. The Basquiat sold for $13.8 million less than he paid for it three years ago.

Lawyers for Mr. Low didn’t respond to a request for comment. Mr. Low has denied any wrongdoing. He also has said he was only an occasional and unofficial adviser to 1MDB.

Mr. Low’s financial dealings are under scrutiny now because global investigators are tracking more than $6 billion they believe was siphoned out of 1MDB between 2009 and 2015, according to a person familiar with an investigation in one country. 1MDB has said all its investments are accounted for and pledged to assist any investigation.

Mr. Low played a critical, behind-the-scenes role in setting up 1MDBand introducedit to many of its business partners. In 2009, soon after 1MDB’s first deal, at least $500 million that originated with 1MDB was deposited into a bank account controlled by Mr. Low, according to people familiar with the matter and bank records. That money was in turn transferred to other accounts, as well as to members of his family, and part of it was spent at U.S. casinos and at an airplane chartering service, the bank records show.

He burst onto the celebrity scene in 2010 soon after 1MDB’s first big deal. He partied with Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio. He bought luxury real estate in New York and Los Angeles valued at more than $60 million, and started taking part in bigger deals.

Mr. Low’s company, Jynwel Capital, joined groups of investors in the $2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing in 2011 and the $2.2 billion purchase of Canadian-listed company Coastal Energy in 2013.

He also became an overnight sensation in the art world, quickly amassing a collection valued at as much as $300 million over several years, mostly buying at auction. Quiet, polite and shopping without an adviser, he was known to sit in the auction houses’ elevated and mostly private viewing rooms, or skyboxes.

His breakout moment came in May 2013 when he paid Christie’s $48.8 million for Basquiat’s seminal “Dustheads,” over its $25 million to $35 million estimated range. The price set an auction high bar for the artist. In a statement, Christie’s said it wouldn’t comment on the specific transaction but that it has a rigorous anti-money-laundering program.

London collector Tiqui Atencio, who had bought the Basquiat nearly 20 years earlier for less than $400,000, said she didn’t know Mr. Low before she put her painting up for sale, but she wasn’t surprised by the record price he paid. She described Mr. Low as “young and hungry to build a collection. There were so many like him at the time, eager to celebrate.”

One auction specialist said Mr. Low’s exuberance “changed people’s perception of Basquiat in the market,” a lasting influence that has lifted Basquiat prices across the board. On May 10, Japanese online retail entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa broke Mr. Low’s record when he paid $57.3 million for an untitled Basquiat from 1982.

News of Mr. Low’s “Dustheads” sale to Mr. Sundheim was first reported on the online newsletter Baer Faxt, but the sale price wasn’t disclosed. Sotheby’s declined to comment on the deal.

The 2013 Basquiat purchase put Mr. Low on the art world’s radar, and last year he was named one of ARTnews magazine’s “Top 200 Collectors.” But in a quick turnabout, Mr. Low is now primarily regarded as a seller, recently unloading a gallery’s worth of art trophies, often at steep discounts. In February, he sold Claude Monet’s 1908 Venetian scene “The Doge’s Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore” at Sotheby’s London for $16.7 million, less than its $17.5 million low estimate, and Pablo Picasso’s “Head of a Woman” at Sotheby’s for $27.5 million, roughly $12 million less than he paid for it in 2013. News of Mr. Low’s ties to these two sales was first reported by Bloomberg.

Mr. Low paid Christie’s for “Dustheads,” and other artworks, using an offshore company called Tanore Finance Corp., which got its funding originally from 1MDB, according to bank records and a person familiar with the matter. Tanore also was the source of $681 million of the more than $1 billion transferred in 2013 into the personal bank accounts of the prime minister of Malaysia, Mr. Najib, according to bank records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and a person familiar with the matter.

Investigators believe most of the money originated with 1MDB and was transferred to Mr. Najib’s account through several intermediaries, according to people familiar with probes in two countries.

Mr. Najib and 1MDB have said they have done nothing wrong. Mr. Najib has said that the money he received in his accounts was a donation from Saudi Arabia’s royal family and that most of it was returned. Malaysia’s attorney general has agreed with that explanation and cleared Mr. Najib of wrongdoing.

—Peter Grant contributed to this article.

Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com and Bradley Hope at bradley.hope@wsj.com

Summary: Businessman Jho Low, closely linked to controversial Malaysian state fund 1MDB, has liquidated two of his best-known investments in the U.S., including a $35 million painting of a pair of drug addicts by Jean-Michel Basquiat.


Chicago online lending startup Avant is laying off 60 employees and dumping major new offerings it was planning for this year, including a credit card.

The announcement comes amid turmoil at the company Avant has called its biggest competitor, Lending Club.

Avant was founded three years ago offering personal loans to middle-class consumers who had been turned down by traditional banks.

It had 950 employees in Chicago, Los Angeles and London as of last month. The layoffs are happening across the organization, spokeswoman Carolyn Blackman Gasbarra said in a statement.

“We made this move to realign our resources with a narrowed focus on our core personal loan product,” she said. “Streamlined focus sets us up for strong near-term profitability given the challenges the market has faced.”

Crain’s Chicago Business first reported the news. The layoffs come shortly after the CEO of San Francisco-based consumer lending firm Lending Club resigned after a controversy over some of its loans.

CEO Al Goldstein ⇒, who Avant did not make available for comment Friday, told Crain’s that Lending Club was his company's biggest competitor. The controversy at Lending Club left the industry at an inflection point, he said.

Avant said it was planning to roll out a credit card this summer, and in March announced it would being offering car refinancing loans. Gasbarra said the company is scrapping those plans for now.

Avant told Blue Sky last month that it was eyeing new geographic territory, hoping to add Australia and other countries to its international operations. Those plans are also on hold now, Gasbarra said.

Avant has issued more than $3 billion in loans and is valued at nearly $2 billion, making it a rarity in Chicago as a "unicorn," a privately held company valued at more than $1 billion.

Even before the Lending Club controversy, Avant was preparing for increased scrutiny of online lenders. The company recently added ex-FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair to the board for her regulatory expertise.


In Hong Kong earlier this fall, I was asked to participate in a debate titled “Whose Century Is It Anyway?” The discussion keyed off of Fortune founder Henry Luce’s declaration of “the American Century” in 1941, and predicted an Asian Century by 2041.

At Fortune we certainly understand the economic forces fueling such predictions. Our Global 500, which ranks companies by revenue, has seen the number of Chinese companies on the list swell to 98 from just 10 at the turn of the century, while U.S. companies have fallen to 128 from 179. Even a modest continuation of that trend would catapult Asia to dominance in the next decade.

But size is not the only metric that matters. Tiny England ruled the 19th century because its ingenuity created the steam engine, the power loom, and the first Industrial Revolution. The U.S. took the lead in the 20th, building giant companies—the original Fortune 500—that mastered mass production and managerial capitalism.

We are now in the early stages of a third Industrial Revolution, with an entirely different economic logic that is causing fundamental changes in the structure of business. The marketplace friction that Nobel economist Ronald Coase cited as justification for giant companies in the last century is melting away. In its place a new model is emerging in which everyone and everything are connected, everywhere and all the time, in a vast web of interactive data that is creating an economic dynamic characterized by zero marginal costs, massive returns to scale, and platform economics. New corporate behemoths like Google, Facebook, and Uber are reaching Fortune 500 size at unprecedented speed. The century will belong to those who master this new model. Economic dynamism will matter more than sheer scale.

This new Industrial Revolution will be the focus of the 13th Fortune Global Forum, being held in San Francisco in November. The invitation-only CEO gathering will include leaders of many of the largest companies in the world and focus on the challenge of “Winning in the Disruptive Century.”

Innovation, of course, is critical to this economic transition. And when it comes to innovation, the San Francisco area provides fertile ground. But innovation ultimately knows no boundaries. Many Asian-born engineers and entrepreneurs play a large role in the success of Silicon Valley. And Asian companies like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei are making innovative strides every day.

Beyond innovation, the question for the 21st century is, Who will allow the social and economic disruption that innovation brings? We are at a Schumpeterian moment, when creative destruction threatens to clear away the business world we are familiar with to make way for one we aren’t. The 21st century will belong to those who embrace that disruption rather than fight it.

In the U.S., business leaders have learned the language of change. When IBM’s Ginni Rometty tells her managers to “always disrupt yourself” or Dow Chemical’s Andrew Liveris talks of four reinventions in 10 years, they are signaling that they recognize the need for rapid and profound change. America’s business leaders hear the footsteps of history rushing behind them. They know they must disrupt themselves, or be disrupted.

The U.S. political system seems less ready for the revolution. While celebrating the personal freedom that allows innovation and disruption to flourish, the political tide has turned against policies like free trade and more expansive immigration that could help fuel the transition. And rising concern about inequality has caused an antibusiness backlash that could give birth to new policies that become significant obstacles to change.

But that still leaves the U.S. ahead of China, where disruption has long been the declared enemy of the state. The top 12 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list are state-owned enterprises, with leadership chosen by the government and favored access to capital. There is no sign they hear footsteps at their heels. Even if innovation flourishes in China, creative destruction seems unlikely under the current regime. There may be private companies that take their home-grown strengths and use them to succeed elsewhere in the world. But as long as the home market is protected, disruption will surely lag.

Debating whether the 21st century belongs to Asia or America, however, ultimately misses a key point. The successful corporations of the future will be those that not only embrace the profound changes of today’s technologies but also build their businesses on a truly global scale. The first and second In-dustrial Revolutions showered riches on a relatively small group of people in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. The third Industrial Revolution will cover the globe, creating a new, connected middle class that will include the bulk of humanity.

All these themes will be explored when we meet in San Francisco the first week of November. We will look at Google’s unique approach to management in a rare one-on-one interview with Alphabet (it still feels funny to write that) CEO Larry Page. We will hear from top leaders in finance, including J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf; in technology, including IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang, Cisco chairman John Chambers, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and BT CEO Gavin Patterson; in health care, including United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, and Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson; in food, including Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison and Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant; in media, including Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg; and in heavy industry, including Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser and Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson.

Fortune’s Geoff Colvin (standing) puts the tough questions to (from left) CEOs Yuanqing Yang of Lenovo Group, Coca-Cola’s Muhtar Kent, and Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase at the most recent Fortune Global Forum, in Chengdu, China.Stefen Chow—Fortune Global Forum

Convening this year’s forum in Silicon Valley is no accident. We will mix the leaders of established companies with leading entrepreneurs, thinkers, and venture capitalists, including Marc Andreessen, Warby Parker co-founder David Gilboa, Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, Airbnb founder Brian Chesky, and Facebook’s Sandberg. (Lest anyone think that Northern California has all the answers, we explore one dark side of high-tech culture.) While attendance at the Fortune Global Forum is by invitation, the insights and news shared there will be available to anyone: The proceedings will be webcast and covered heavily on Fortune.com.

The pace and geography of the changes in business will continue to be a matter for debate and speculation. But the inevitability of that change has been settled by history. The new technologies of business have their own irresistible logic. The 21st-century corporation is coming. We at Fortune are doing our best to help light the way.

A version of this article appears in the November 1, 2015 issue of Fortune with the headline “The 21st-century club.”

Summary: Global business is going through a new industrial revolution, and the future belongs to those who can master the new economic model.


You can’t always tell what’s in your food just by looking at it, though one startup is attempting to change that.

San Francisco-based Nima is getting ready to ship its first product: a portable device equipped with a sensor that can determine whether or not a meal contains gluten. The company is also developing sensors for peanuts and milk – two of the most common triggers for the nearly 15 million Americans who suffer with food allergies.

“I had never had issues with food and, in college, I found out I had all these issues with gluten, eggs, dairy and soy. I couldn’t eat anything,” says Shireen Yates, co-founder and CEO of Nima, which was formerly called 6SensorLabs. “I found it hard socially. When a waitress at a wedding asked me how gluten allergic I really was, that was my ‘aha’ moment.”

Nima is a portable, chemistry-based sensor that uses the proteins in the food to detect if the avoidable ingredient is present. To get a reading, users drop a sample of the food or drink into the device’s disposable capsule; within roughly two minutes they get their results. With gluten, the sensor is able to detect 20 parts per million. If the food has gluten in it, a frown face will appear on the sensor. If it is gluten free, a smiley face appears. Users can share the results using an accompanying app to help other users with food allergies.

Related: 5 Industries That Are Actually Ripe for Disruption

The product is targeted at anyone who wants to avoid certain food ingredients for whatever reason. “People with food allergies are stressed out when eating, especially when eating out or traveling,” says Yates. “They want that peace of mind at meal time.”

That peace of mind doesn’t come cheap. Nima is selling at $199 for pre-orders but will eventually be sold for $249. The disposable capsules each cost $3.99 and come in packs of 12 if the customer subscribes for monthly orders. An individual capsule sells for around $4.99 and also comes in a 12-pack. While Yates won’t disclose how many preorders the company has received, she said it’s a sizeable number.

In the first stages of the product, Nima will sell capsules for the specific allergy whether its gluten, peanut or milk. In the future, Yates envisions one capsule that can test for whatever food ingredient the customers is trying to avoid. The company has seen strong interest from schools and parents – and it’s no surprise. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food allergies among children are on the rise, increasing about 50% from 1997 through 2011.

Today, Nima announced a $9.2 million Series A round led by Foundry Group, bringing its total funding to $14 million. Brad Feld, managing partner at Foundry Group, says Nima fits into a growing category of seamless body-monitoring technology. “Implanting devices in your body is on one end of the spectrum and on the other end are companies measuring external things,” he says. “Nima is the first company we ran into doing a compelling job with food and measuring information around food prior to ingesting it.”

There isn’t a clear reason why the number of people with food allergies is growing but it does underscore the need for products like Nima, according to Yates. “These food allergies never existed when I went to high school,” says the 32-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan MBA graduate. “We’re seeing an increase in the prevalence of people with food allergies.”

Summary: The same goes for gluten and milk.


The end of April and first few weeks of May are among the busiest times on the media industry’s calendar. It’s traditionally the upfronts season, when TV networks make their top-dollar pitches to advertisers and agencies. Now it’s also the “NewFronts” season, where digital publishers do the same.

But this year we in the media world are falling prey to some really wild spin. In digital, it’s become customary for us to invent audience comparisons that just don’t measure up — particularly when it comes to digital video “views.” And when we do this, we make bad decisions.

Let me explain. Last month, I’m sure you heard a lot about this video of a watermelon:

BuzzFeed originally hosted this video as a livestream on Facebook, and at the peak of its 45-minute run time, 807,000 viewers were watching at the same time — greater than the total viewership for recent episodes of many basic and premium cable shows, like FX’s “Louie” and AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire.” The press went nuts. Its message: digital is obviously as big as “TV.” (And, yes, BuzzFeed touted this number at its NewFront.)

But wait, there’s more! That 807,000 figure represents the number of viewers concurrently watching that single video at a single moment in time, on a platform where a “view” is counted as three seconds. When we say that an episode of “Louie” has about half a million viewers, that’s for any average minute of the show, not at a single “peak” minute. And there was just that one watermelon video — it wasn’t part of an ongoing series of exploding produce. In contrast, “Louie” averaged 336,000 viewers per episode on average across all telecasts on linear TV (all 826 original and repeat telecasts from Season 1 through 5). This is an estimate of “real usage” — taking into account not just how many people watched, but for how long (in the average minute). Taken an important step further: 336,000 average viewership for 826 episodes? That’s a whole lot more real human attention than 807,000 at a given moment in a single video. Comparing these two is less apples-to-oranges and more apples-to-asteroids.

We fall for this media spin over and over again. Like when, a couple of months ago, I pointed out a similar mistake in comparing views from a popular YouTube vlogger to the audience of Game 7 of the World Series (the TL;DR version: “Views” do not equal viewers).

Or the similar claim this spring that Taylor Swift is bigger than network TV, based on some Nielsen custom research conducted on behalf of Vevo. The week Swift’s “Bad Blood” video was released, her Vevo videos had 18 million views in the U.S. — more than any network TV show that week with the exception of NCIS: Los Angeles. Wow, right?

Not quite. What this actually means is that 18 million Americans clicked on a Vevo-hosted Taylor Swift video during that week. Not just “Bad Blood,” but any of the 63 total Taylor Swift videos that were on Vevo when “Bad Blood” premiered. While some of these viewers certainly watched one or more videos to completion, they also could have closed the video after half a second. Meanwhile, I checked with Nielsen to clarify: 19.45 million Americans watched at least a full minute of that single episode of NCIS: Los Angeles that week.

What if we talked about TV content in the same hyperbolic terms that we talk about viral videos? Well, it would look like this: FX’s recent “Hotel” season of the American Horror Story anthology series had a multi-platform gross average audience of 10.78 million viewers. When you add up the total minutes of content across the whole season, it results in a tally of 9,046,244,169 gross minutes watched. Divide that all up into two-second views, and you get 271,387,325,078.

271 billion! When I talk about attention using numbers like this, I sound completely insane. But it’s effectively the same metric that’s being utilized for a lot of stuff on the Internet.

And just because you can track this metric doesn’t mean you should. Tracked properly, video usage is not just a function of how many watched, but for how long they watched. Nielsen deserves a shout-out for its current work in building a Total Content Rating methodology, which aims to create a multi-platform metric that would enable comparable, and thus meaningful, tracking across screens and over time. But we’re not there yet, and so what we’re currently calling “views” is complete garbage.

While it might be tantalizing to utilize this “views” metric to illustrate viral digital hits completely eclipsing traditional TV, the reality is that by doing so, we as an industry are facilitating a false, meaningless narrative. We’re buying into our own bogus spin. It’s not not BuzzFeed’s fault, and it’s not just Vevo’s fault either. Everyone should frame their businesses in the best possible way for investment. But TV has failed to keep up in the larger number messaging department, making it impossible to have meaningful conversations around human attention, thus avoiding the real paths to excelling as advertisers. And I don’t know about you, but I think most of us in the ad business want to do our job well.

Premium television content — and, yes, this “television” content can be on digital-first platforms like Hulu or Amazon Prime — is the kind of creative work that draws a passionate, engaged, and critical audience that values the content enough to temporarily attend to a brand message in order to access it.

And, since I’m pretty sure this officially makes me the old media guy complaining about all this newfangled stuff, I suppose it’s time for me to get back to telling those meddling kids to get off my lawn. But before I do, let me say this: None of this has to be this complicated! Work backward from the fact that there are 24 hours in a day, and figure out where people are spending the largest share of that time. You’ll be surprised at what starts making sense, and what doesn’t.

Joe Marchese (@joemarchese) is the president of advanced advertising for Fox Networks Group, and founder of true[X].

Summary: (Views of each letter counted as a discrete view)


Maya Angelou was the second poet in history to be present at a presidential inauguration, when in 1993 she read On the Pulse of Morning at President Bill Clinton’ inauguration ceremony.

Angelou, like Clinton, had grown up in Arkansas, and that chilly January day in 1993 consecrated the poet in the eyes of Americans for two decades to come.

Angelou also read a poem for President George W. Bush, when she recited Amazing Peace at the 2005 Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the White House.

(Video courtesy: William J. Clinton Presidential Library)

Summary: Angelou became the first black and first female inaugural poet in 1993, and her deep, majestic voice left an indelible mark


The average attention span for the notoriously ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds, but according to a new study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the affects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.

Researchers in Canada surveyed 2,000 participants and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms (EEGs). Microsoft found that since the year 2000 (or about when the mobile revolution began) the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to eight seconds.

“Heavy multi-screeners find it difficult to filter out irrelevant stimuli — they’re more easily distracted by multiple streams of media,” the report read.

On the positive side, the report says our ability to multitask has drastically improved in the mobile age.

Microsoft theorized that the changes were a result of the brain’s ability to adapt and change itself over time and a weaker attention span may be a side effect of evolving to a mobile Internet.

The survey also confirmed generational differences for mobile use; for example, 77% of people aged 18 to 24 responded “yes” when asked, “When nothing is occupying my attention, the first thing I do is reach for my phone,” compared with only 10% of those over the age of 65.

And now congratulate yourself for concentrating long enough to make it through this article.

Summary: The study reveals a major ...


Here's the lowdown on intense pulsed light - does it work, is it painful, and how does it compare to laser hair removal?

Hair removal has come a long way since its humble IPL beginnings. The good news is that we now have a far more effective hair removal offering available to us in the form of lasers – a growing and sophisticated area of the treatment industry, set to be worth 2.19 billion by 2019 according to the International Master Course of Ageing Skin. The bad news is a more confusing, often risk-associated, world of treatments.

Here we answer a few of your burning hair removal questions, and with the help of the experts, hope to smooth out the tangled IPL vs. laser question.

What is IPL? IPL stands for intense pulsed light, and it is a form of light therapy, used for various dermatological procedures including hair removal.

So what's the difference between IPL and laser hair removal technology? Unlike laser treatments, which have just one specific wavelength emitted from the diode depending on what you're targeting, IPL has multiple wavelengths (all between 500 and 1,200 nanometres) that scatter within the skin.

As with all light based treatments, IPL works by emitting a wavelength into the skin, which in the case of hair removal targets pigment. "It works in the same way black clothing absorbs heat on a hot day, versus white clothing which reflects it," explains laser specialist Debbie Thomas. "The light is absorbed by the pigment in the hair. It quickly turns to heat which then kills the growing cells that make the hair," Thomas adds.

Hair has to be living for it to work however, "in that, we mean it has to be attached to the bulb of growing cells - when you pull out a hair and it has that little jelly bulb around it, it's one of the 20 to 40 per cent of living hair on you body. If you pull it out and it doesn't, it's a dead hair which can stay on your skin for up to three weeks. That's why you need to have up to 12 treatments of hair removal laser to catch all hairs in their living cycle."

However, as a spokesperson at SK:N clinic explains, "IPL is far less effective than laser hair removal. The energy is produced by a lamp, a little like a light bulb, and produces a variety of light waves, meaning that it is more diffused and less powerful and usually limited to use on fairer skin types."

How do IPL and laser hair removal work? Unlike laser treatments, which emit a specific wavelength, IPL works like a flash-lamp, sending out scattered wavelengths of light, making IPL very targeted. That also means it affects the pigment in your skin too, so IPL only really works for those with fair skin and dark hair.

"It's now generally accepted that IPL is a good workhorse for treating blood vessels, but not a very good one for hair removal. The truth is, it's limited and quite uncomfortable," says Dr Patrick Bowler, laser expert, and director of Courthouse Clinics. "The great thing about laser is that you can specifically set them up, adapting the nanometre of the wavelengths to target an exact pigment. For example we know that brown hair is zapped at 800 nanometres."

So if laser is more effective, is it more painful? Not at all. "Laser feels like being flicked with a hot elastic band," explains Thomas, but it does vary from laser to laser. Most experts also agree that laser is considerably less painful than IPL "which uses hundreds of wavelengths in each pulse, which only serve to heat up the skin without having any effect on reducing the growth of the hair," explain the experts at SK:N.

Most modern laser machines also come with a cooling fan to take the edge of the pain, while some lasers, including the Soprano, are virtually pain-free. You might get temporary redness and scaling however, but it will fade.

Where should I go to for my laser hair removal? "If an offer sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Cheap offers usually indicate a salon has bought a budget, substandard piece of equipment and the staff won't necessarily by trained to a high level," warns Thomas. As a rule of thumb, top laser machines cost between £35k and £65k, while an IPL handset costs between £3k and £10k. Go to a reputable clinic; we suggest Courthouse Clinics , EF Medispa , Debbie Thomas at Hari's and SK:N Clinics.

"Unlike before when laser and IPL was regulated, it isn't anymore, so it really is a minefield out there," explains Bowler, so do your research before you book in anywhere. Ask to speak to previous patients if you can.

Are there any good clinics that still do IPL treatments? Yes, as a cheaper alternative to laser. The expert consensus is however, that if you want effective hair removal, particularly on larger areas and darker skin, laser is more effective.

So who is laser hair removal suitable for? "As long as you have the right hair colour, (dark), and skin colour, (pale), you can have light based hair removal, anywhere on the body," says Thomas. Unlike IPL which only treats pale skin, some lasers will now treat hair removal on medium to dark skins, including the Nd:YAG laser, which has a slightly longer wavelength that is safe to use on darker skins, although it's worth doing your homework first to check the risks.

As for removing fair hair, "it's a myth. Lasers can't remove blonde, red, white or grey hair," warns Dr Nick Low, "we're hoping that there may be some radio frequency or ultra sound treatments soon, but they're not perfect yet, and they're not called lasers." "Don't believe anybody who tells you that their laser can remove fair hair," adds Bowler.

Remember too, if you have a tan, stay away from any kind of laser or IPL. "We don't use lasers or IPL at all within four weeks of sun exposure," says Thomas, "as it can target pigment in the skin and cause scarring." The same goes for self-tanning.

If you're pregnant or breast feeding hair removal is not advisable. "Some medication or supplements (certain anti-biotics, anti-depressants including St John's Wort) will also cause hypersensitive skin, so hair removal is not advised," says Thomas.

Which laser machines are best? "Alexandrite is good for pale skin, while ND:Yag for all skin colours," says Thomas. Bowler also recommends the Soprano, while Lowe uses the Cynosure Elite in clinic.

How do I prep for hair removal treatment? You should always be offered a patch test by your clinic before any treatment. "And in each area you're having treatment, as the skin and hair behaves differently in different areas," says Thomas.

Shaving, bleaching, trimming hair pre and in-between treatments is totally fine, "waxing and plucking however are not," explains Thomas.

How many laser treatments will I need? The going rate for laser is six to 12 treatments, but it varies hugely, "depending on the body area you're treating, hormonal growth, lifestyle and medication can effect how many bookings you'll need," advises Thomas. Keep bookings regular though as you will get better results.

"In general, treatments take between 15 to 90 minutes depending on the size of the area," says Lowe.

How much will hair removal cost? Laser prices vary a lot, but at a reputable clinic the average cost for a treatments should be £160 for your lower leg, £90 for your bikini line, and £75 for your under arm.

When I've found a reputable clinic, what questions should I ask? First check online reviews, "nowadays it's a good indicator," says Thomas. And look up the machine the clinic has recommended for you too.

When you find a clinic you like, ask what lasers they have, "if they have several it shows that they invest in equipment and will have alternatives if you are not getting results with one particular machine," says Thomas.

Ask how long the clinic has been doing laser hair removal, five years or more is what you're after, while your therapist should have been operating the machinery for at least a year.

And again, always make sure they do a patch test before your first treatment.

And what about home gadgets? "They work but are limited in power settings thanks to EU regulations," explains Bowler. "They do however have a place to play as they can zap the odd hair after you've had a course of professional treatments. They're a good maintenance, but won't give you good long term results alone."

Both approved by the FDA (an American testing body, that is often stricter than the EU), IluminageTOUCH Permanent Hair Reduction System, £375 is the first IPL and radio-frequency based hair removal system approved for at-home results on all skin tones and was designed by scientists at Synergon, who first developed IPL and radio frequency energies for the use of hair removal, while the Tria Hair Removal Laser Precision, £253 is ergonomic enough to treat hair under arms or around the bikini line and utilizes the same diode-technology you’d expect in a clinic, albeit at a reduced intensity.

Summary: Test Results: Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) vs Laser Hair Removal on Telegraph Beauty. Permanent hair removal, How it works, and which skin types it works best for.


Politicians sometimes wear them, and so do a few chief executives. Urban hipsters have become synonymous with them, yet rugged outdoorsmen have been sporting them for years.

Contestants at the National Beard and Moustache Championships in New York in 2015. Van Tine Dennis / Sipa/AP

Beards — having become so popular that they've even had an annual movement ("no shave November," now more or less a year-round display) named after them — are part of a growing category of the male grooming market, which sees more than $6 billion in sales annually, according to Euromonitor data.

The slow decline of clean-shaven faces has given rise to a new male archetype, one that's becoming a coveted market demographic in its own right and spurring the rise of small businesses that cater to pampering hairy faces.

The phenomenon is easy to spot on social media, with Instagram and Twitter posts exploding with hirsute hashtags like "#beardgang" and "beardgods" praising those with well-groomed beards — and mocking those without them. Surf those terms and you'll likely discover a host of self-styled "beard models" — and thousands of ardent admirers.

Related: Twitter Co-Founder's Beard Goes Viral

"The idea of male beauty went from the all-American guy to a more natural, romantic look; hair on the body," Philip Fimmano, a style expert with Studio Edelkoort, a trend forecasting company, told CNBC in a recent interview.

The more rugged-looking male is in fact "very sensitive, and not afraid of taking care of his appearance," Fimmano said. Believe it or not, that's not a contradiction in terms, he added.

"Although beards may look unruly to those who don't have them, it actually requires a lot of beauty," Fimmano said.

Some observers think the trend is already on its way out the door. Anderson La, a hair stylist at Sassoon Salon, said he wasn't sure how sustainable beards are in the long run.

"It seems to only appeal to a certain demographic," La said. "A majority of men still like and are required to keep their face clean for most mainstream professional jobs." La added that some higher-end barbershops cater to grooming bearded men, but "regular salons usually don't."

Yet evidence suggests that the demand for facial hair has increased the supply of products and businesses willing to cater to them.

Alun Withey, an academic and a self-styled beard historian (no, really), told CNBC that barbershops and beard care toiletries are among the fastest growing business segments in the U.K. and the U.S.

Related: Beard Trend Surges Amid Need for Sex Appeal, Dominance: Report

Withey found that barbershops and beard care products are the fastest growing businesses in the U.K. and the U.S. According to the academic, the trend is part of a historical cycle, but the current incarnation is different from its predecessors.

"In the 18th century they disappeared and around 1850 they were back with a vengeance," Withey said. "If you go back 300 to 400 years ago, trends will last for decades," such as Victorian-era beards, which Withey said lasted five decades. The current beard wave has been the longest for at least 30 years, he added.

The current offerings of the male grooming market largely encourage men to shave. That said, the resurgent beard culture is acting as a catalyst for specialty products, according to Withey. That means the trend could last longer than some expect.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the rise of products for beards stay," Withey said. "I think it's established itself as a niche."

Summary: Beards are part of a growing category of the male grooming market, which sees more than $6 billion in sales annually, according to Euromonitor data.


Prince once pulled an epic move on a nearly naked dancer in a club, but it's not at all what you'd expect from a singer with a rep for being a sex demigod ... according to rapper Talib Kweli.

Talib hit up N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN's "Drink Champs" podcast on Play.it this week and talked about the run-in he had with Prince at a Hollywood party. He says there were naked dancers everywhere and Prince -- a Jehovah's Witness at that point -- approached one of them with a financial proposal.

Check it out ... it's an awesome story, and the birth of what N.O.R.E. and co. call "reverse pimping."

Summary: Prince once pulled an epic move on a nearly naked dancer in a club, but it's not at all what you'd expect from a singer with a rep for being a sex…


As Nokia works to get its business back on track, it will make significant job cuts.

After announcing last October that it plans to restructure some of its units ahead of its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent ALU , Nokia NOK said on Wednesday that layoffs will be part of its strategy to cut €900 million in operating costs. The company will complete the layoffs by the end of 2018.

Nokia will cut 1,300 of its 6,850 employees in Finland, according to the Wall Street Journal, and 1,400 of its 4,800 German employees.

In France, the company will shed 400 employees, but will also hire 500 new ones in research and development units as part of its deal with the French government to keep 4,200 jobs in the country for two years after the Alcatel-Lucent deal. It’s not clear how many jobs total it will cut globally, however.

Nokia acquired the French company in a bid to remake itself into a telecom networking powerhouse, and Alcatel-Lucent could be its key to the U.S. market where the company previously failed to make a mark, as Fortune previously reported. Last year, Nokia also shed its mapping unit, HERE, and sold it to a group of German automakers after a small bidding war.

Nokia shareholders approved the €15.6 billion ($17.76 billion) acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in December, and the companies officially began working as one in January.

Summary: By the end of 2018, it will have cut thousands of jobs.


LONDON -- Malaysia's YTL Power International won a bidding war for Wessex Water, a British utility that is one of the largest international assets of Enron Corp.

YTL Power, a unit of Malaysian energy and construction conglomerate YTL Corp., bought Wessex Water for 544.6 million pounds ($776.4 million or €880.2 million) plus the assumption of 694.9 million pounds in debt, the companies said.

The deal edged out a rival...

Summary: YTL Power won a bidding war for Wessex Water, a U.K. utility that is one of Enron's biggest foreign assets, beating a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland.


BURBANK, Calif., April 4— Frank G. Wells, an executive who helped propel the Walt Disney Company to new success by re-establishing its leadership in animated features and by guiding it into new realms of comedy and dramatic films, was killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash during a back-country skiing expedition in central Nevada. He was 62.

Two other people were killed in the crash and two survived.

Mr. Wells, who was Disney's president and chief operating officer, played a major role in the turnaround of Disney after he was recruited in 1984 along with Michael D. Eisner, the company's chairman and chief executive. Internal turmoil had threatened to break up the company, whose headquarters are in Burbank.

In the last 10 years, Mr. Wells and Mr. Eisner helped to increase annual revenues to $8.5 billion from $1.5 billion. The company's market value leaped to $22 billion from $2 billion, and revenue from theme parks and resorts tripled, the company said. Series of Film Hits

Mr. Wells and Mr. Eisner re-established Disney's dominance in animated feature films with a series of hits that included "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin."

Mr. Wells was known for adhering to a strict work regimen that began at 6 A.M. He handled the details of Disney's day-to-day operations, but was often overshadowed in the public eye by the colorful Mr. Eisner.

Beneath his buttoned-down exterior, however, Mr. Wells was an adventurer. His interest in mountain climbing dated to his undergraduate days at Pomona College in California, but it was not until he was in his late 40's that he took up the pastime seriously.

In 1981 he and another millionaire businessman, Richard D. Bass of Dallas, set out to climb the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. By 1984 they had succeeded in reaching six of the summits -- Kilimanjaro in Africa, Vinson in Antarctica, Kosciusko in Australia, Elbrus in Europe, McKinley in North America and Aconcagua in South America. Only Mount Everest in Asia -- at 29,028 feet the world's highest peak -- had eluded them. Climbing Seven Summits

Both men were members of unsuccessful Everest expeditions in 1982 and 1983. Mr. Wells gave up his quest in 1984, when he became president of Disney, but in 1985 Mr. Bass made a successful ascent of Everest, becoming the first person to stand on the highest summits of the world's continents.

The two men wrote about their experiences in "Seven Summits," published by Warner in 1986.

The crash in which Mr. Wells died was a "heli-skiing" expedition, in which participants are flown into remote areas where they can ski on untouched powder.

The Elko County Sheriff, Neil Harris, said the helicopter was returning from the outing in the Ruby Mountains when mechanical problems caused it to crash into a slope at about 7,500 feet. Dave Walton, 46, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Beverly Johnson of Los Angeles and Wyoming, were also killed.

Mrs. Johnson's husband, Mike Hoover of Kelly, Wyo., and their ski guide, Paul Scannell of Tahoe City, Calif., survived. They are being treated at Washoe Medical Center in Reno.

Before joining Disney, Mr. Wells left Warner Brothers Inc., where he had been president since 1969, and before that vice president. By 1990 he was listed as having the highest salary in California, with total compensation of nearly $51 million in salary, bonus and stock options.

Mr. Wells was born on March 4, 1932, in Coronado, the son of a Navy officer, and spent his childhood on Navy bases in California and on the East Coast. He graduated from Pomona College and attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, then served two years in the Army before going to Stanford Law School.

He is survived by his wife, Luanne, and two sons, Kevin and Briant.

Photo: Frank G. Wells (Reuters,1993)


Quit your yarn-bombing for a second. The Penguin Foundation, based at Phillip Island in Australia, is calling for knitters around the globe to send them sweaters for birds in rehab.

Penguins are constantly getting caught in oil spills down under, and they need the tiny sweaters to keep warm and to prevent them from attempting to rid themselves from the toxic oil with their beaks.

Lyn Blom, a receptionist at Phillip Island Nature Parks in Victoria, has knitted many penguin jumpers over the years, and says their size make them an easy task.

“They’re very quick,” she says.

You can find more information on how to knit for penguins here. And if your masterpiece arrives at a time when the Penguin Foundation is overstocked, the organization will use them in educational programs and sell them in fundraisers.

Summary: An Australian foundation calls for knitters to send sweaters for oil-damaged birds


A Manhattan couple paid more than $1 million — a first — for an apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant because the area reminds them of when the Lower East Side was gritty.

Young, hip people have been gentrifying Bed-Stuy for years because of cheap property prices — but a $1 million price tag for anything but an entire town house is unheard of.

“It reminds us of what the Lower East Side used to be like; that is why we bought there,” said new owner Mara Singer, who represents fashion and still-life photographers.

“We have been living on and off [on] the Lower East Side for 25 years. We do love it, but Soho House is coming, the neighborhood is changing and it is just different. We like the old Lower East Side.

“I guess it was a record-setting price, but it is still so much cheaper than Manhattan in so many ways,” she said.

Singer and her still-life photog husband, David Sawyer, snapped up the penthouse duplex on Lexington Avenue now that their two sons are moving to college this fall.

It’s a two-bedroom, two-bath loft condo that’s 1,559 square feet, with high ceilings and a 600-square-foot private roof deck.

The master bedroom is a loft, though, and the closest transit option is the unreliable G train.

“We live in a loft that is a little bigger,” Singer said. “What we are moving to is very, very similar to what we have now. We are loft people, but the new one is a more industrial, raw space. It’s not overdone, over-renovated and sanitized. It still has the old New York flavor, which doesn’t happen anymore.”

The new 32-unit, four-story condo building used to be a frozen-food factory, said broker Alex Maroni, of Douglas Elliman.

“It still has the magic,” Singer said. “They didn’t get rid of the beauty. They left a lot of it, which is what is so amazing.”

The condo really sold for $999,999 to avoid a special “mansion tax” added to homes that sell for more than $1 million, Maroni said.

Summary: There goes the neighborhood. A Manhattan couple paid more than $1 million — a first — for an apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant because the area reminds them of when the Lower East Side was…


Recent decades have seen something of a Diaspora of Latvians into the world, at least to judge from some of the biographical particulars attendant upon Rasma Lielmane's New York debut last Sunday evening at Carnegie Recital Hall.

Miss Lielmane, a violinist, was born in Riga, trained in Moscow and lives in Mexico City. The contemporary work on her program was by Talivaldis Kenins, who was born in Liepaja, Latvia, trained in Paris and lives in Toronto,

The program Sunday was a challenging one. Miss Lielmane, accompanied helpfully by Marina Balters, by and large, dispatched it with greater technical than interpretive aplomb. As technician, she is really first‐class—;not the world's most dazzling virtuoso, mind you, but easily in command of most of the hurdles that the pieces she chose put in her path. Such moments as the running quick final movement of the Bach C Sonata or the trills at the very end of the Chausson “Poeme” were dispatched with an assurance so secure that they were genuinely enjoyable in themselves.

Where Miss Lielmane had more trouble was in projecting unusual sensitivity or fervor through the correctly executed notes. One faults her here only on the highest standards, to be sure, but it is her own technical gifts that demand the invocation of those standards. Her playing was never poor or completely lifeless. But it lacked the spark and individuality of distinguished artistry.

Her program, aside from the Bach, Chausson Kenins, offered a Sonata in E minor by Tartini and Ravel's “Tzigane.” The Kenins Sonata was distinctly attractive affair —; one movement with sharply varied moods, conceived in an essentially conservative idiom of motorically Neo‐Classical fast passages and rhapsodic slow sections, yet full of personality.

Mary Alderdice harpsichordist, gave herself a rather lavish and wholly unconventional debut concert at Carnegie Recital Hall on Wednesday night. The California‐born alumna of the Eastman School of Music, Miss Alderdice, was solo only in short pieces by Gibbons and Mozart and a selection from the 17‐century “Parthenia InViolate.” Otherwise, the program consisted of various kinds of vocal and instrumental ensemble works.

Of the five assisting performers, Faye Robinson, soprano, was the star and, indeed, so compelling in her singing of two solo cantatas by Handel and four early songs by Mozart that she dominated the evening. The other musicians were Benjamin Hudson, who joined Miss Alderdice in Bach's Sonata No. 6 in G and in Haydn's Concertino in F for Harpsichord and Strings. Carol Zeavin, violinist, and Frederick Zlotkin, cellist, also participated in the Concertino, and Mr. Zlotkin played continuous in the vocal works.

The other guest was Jens Nygaard, with whom Miss Alderdice has studied, and together they played a four‐hand sonata by Mozart (K. 19d).

Miss Alderdice is obviously an imaginative and capable organizer with an interest in offbeat music literature, and her performances indicated that she is also a dependable instrumentalist and reliable musician.

Because playing from memory is apparently not her cup of tea, and because she did not project strong individuality in her solos, it would appear that she presented herself appropriately as chamber‐music specialist. There is always room for newcomers in this field, and Miss Alderdice made a good case for her admission to it.

A program of Latvian arts songs was presented in Carnegie Recital Hall last Tuesday night by Maija Krigena, mezzosoprano of the Latvian State Opera, who was making her American debut. Her pianist was Peteris Plakidis, a 30year‐old composer who teaches at the Riga Conservatory.

The songs ranged from one by Joseph Wihtol (1863‐1948), founder of the Con‘servatory, to a group by Mr. Plakidis. Emile Darzins, Pauls Damble, Romualds Kalsons, Alfreds Kalnins and Janis Medins, whose works come between chronologically, were also represented.

If the recital gave a fair picture of Latvian art songs, then they have not changed much in the last 75 years. Those that were heard were prevailingly lyrical, harmonically conservative, influenced more by Russian and French models than by the German lieder.

They were appealing enough, and the recital passed pleasantly, without ever gripping the listener. There were graceful melodies, sweet and bittersweet harmonies and a sentimentality that was never objectionable.

The most flavorsome were by Dambis, whose long triptych of songs were rhythmically alert, and by Mr. Plakidis. The latter's four works gave the singer a wide‐ranging melodic line, which was supported sparely by the piano. Mr. Plakidis used plucked piano strings and repeated short figurations in a simple but dramatic way. The accompaniments had character for being more economical.

The composer was also a sympathetic pianist for Miss Krigena, The mezzosoprano had a voice with many of the characteristics associated with Slavic singers. It had warmth, a slightly, excessive vibrato and a back‐of‐the‐throat production that could interfere with a smooth legato. Yet Miss Krigena sang with charm and sensitivity, making as good a case as possible for the music presented.

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this archives appears in print on October 2, 1977, on page 66 of the New York edition with the headline: Music in Review. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: US debut of Latvian State Opera mezzo-soprano Maija Krigena, Carnegie Hall, revd by Raymond Ericson; her pianist is Peteris Plakidis


Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA ikea is known for its simple, affordable furniture that populates dorm rooms and studio apartments across the country. Now, the furniture chain is getting into the sustainable farming industry, one restaurant kitchen at a time.

The company—which has put further emphasis on becoming more environmentally sustainable—recently introduced “The Farm,” a hydroponic garden that would allow them to grow the food served at their stores directly inside the IKEA restaurants. The in-store cafes—known for their Swedish meatballs, cinnamon rolls and lingonberry everything—are just one small slice of the company’s $2 billion-a-year business. However, IKEA is hoping to use The Farm as a model for restaurants everywhere to take a more holistic, home-grown approach to the food supply chain.

For more on retail, watch this Fortune video:

The brand partnered with Space 10, a “future-living lab” and exhibition space in Copenhagen, to develop and unveil the project. According to PSFK, one Space 10 employee compared the state of the environment to a sick human body, saying that the earth needs to time to rest and get healthier in order to recover from its current issues. IKEA is no doubt hoping this DIY farming concept will provide some of that rest for the planet by moving gardens indoors and taking a little stress off the land. The Farm utilizes a variety of IKEA products in its design; The LED lights that power the hydroponic garden are from the store’s Rydda/Vaxer line, and IKEA-brand shelves and plastic bins are used to house the plant life. All said, 80 percent of the supplies used in The Farm’s initial model came from the company.

More from Food&Wine: • IKEA’s Iconic Frakta Bags Get a Makeover • 5 Ways to Tell if Your Coffee Is Sustainable • How to Achieve Amazing Compost at Home

For now, the company’s design will be utilized only within its own restaurants, but soon chefs, restaurateurs and home cooks across the world could be creating their own on-site sustainable gardens. A sustainably sourced food future could be just an IKEA trip away.

This article previously appeared on FoodandWine.com.

Summary: Furniture giant already launched its own 'hydroponic' garden.


One of the most popular ad-blocking browser extensions, Adblock Plus, has suffered a partial legal defeat in its native Germany over its controversial business model.

Adblock Plus, which has over 100 million active users, previously won a string of court victories over German publishers and broadcasters who were trying to have it declared illegal—the courts kept saying it was perfectly legal for people to use ad-blockers.

However, one of the publishers, the media giant Axel Springer axelf (disclosure: My former co-employer at Politico Europe), appealed to the Cologne higher regional court. On Friday, the court handed it a partial victory: Ad-blocking is still legal, but Adblock Plus may not charge Axel Springer to have its ads show up in front of Adblock Plus users.

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This is the most contentious element of what Adblock Plus does. It operates a whitelist for so-called “acceptable ads” that don’t involve obnoxious elements like pop-ups, dancing animations and auto-playing videos. Adblock Plus users can opt to see no ads whatsoever, but they can also choose to see acceptable ads.

Most publishers can get their ads onto this list for free, securing the revenue that keeps them going. However, the biggest publishers—those who show “acceptable ads” to their users 10 million times per month—have to give Adblock Plus a cut of their ad revenue. The company’s standard rate is 30%, which is an awfully big slice.

Due to Friday’s ruling, Adblock Plus can no longer charge Axel Springer in this way. As the firm said in a blog post, it has to treat Axel Springer as a “special case” in order to continue legally distributing its plugins.

The publisher is delighted. “Journalism costs money and must always have the option of financing itself through advertising revenues, be it in the offline world or in the digital space,” Axel Springer’s head of content and commercial law, Claas-Hendrik Soehring, said.

“We will not accept illegal interferences with our constitutionally guaranteed freedom in designing media products—in particular, the ‘cutting out’ of ads from our digital media offerings. We are happy that the court declared the concrete business model of Adblock Plus illegal.”

Adblock Plus spokesman Ben Williams disputed this characterization of the verdict, as “the finding will only have a narrow effect on [Axel Springer’s] properties.”

For more on ad-blocking, watch our video.

“It doesn’t apply outside of Germany and it doesn’t apply outside of Axel Springer,” he said, adding that the legal basis of this verdict was a very strict, very German competition law that was only introduced at the end of last year.

“This sort of restriction on competition doesn’t exist in other countries,” Williams said.

Adblock Plus will now appeal to Germany’s supreme court, and Axel Springer is preparing to fight again. It may be that this is a specifically German law, but it could be that the result of this battle will set a precedent for this sizeable market.

Summary: Adblock Plus can no longer charge media giant Axel Springer for letting its ads through the blocking filter, a Cologne court ruled Friday.


06/28/2016 AT 08:00 AM EDT

is getting the LEGO treatment.

The actor is making his video-game debut in the upcoming LEGO

game, reprising his role as Han Solo – but this time in minifig form.

Ford, 73, recorded original dialogue featured in the game, which allows fans to play out storylines from the blockbuster film – and PEOPLE and EW have the exclusive first look.

In one of the first clips from the game, Ford's LEGO character is seen fighting alongside trusty sidekick Chewbacca as they attempt to take down the First Order – just don't forget the "Wookie cookies."

The game stays true to the characters' signature looks, decking them out in all of their original gear from the film. (Yes, Han Solo still sports his sleek brown jacket.)

And Ford isn't the only original cast member featured in the game. Fellow Star Wars vet

also lends her voice, along with franchise newcomers

Aside from delivering the epic battles scenes from the film, the game will also feature new adventures set in the time leading up to the events in

video game arrives June 28.

Summary: Harrison Ford recorded original dialogue featured in the game


Alicia Gonzalez of Oakley is a mild-mannered school clerk with little interest in being gored by a bull, much less trampled, rammed or tossed in the air on the horns of a 2,000-pound beast.

Yet on Saturday, Gonzalez traveled to Pleasanton so that she could walk into a corral with two dozen stampeding bulls and run for her life.

"My stomach is in knots. What did I get myself into?" asked Gonzalez, 44, wearing black tights and a red tutu and hopping nervously on her toes. "My sister came up with this idea - she's the wild one in the family."

Her sister, Esmeralda Hurtado, 36, heard that the Great Bull Run - in which hundreds of people willingly run alongside bulls - was happening at the Alameda County Fairgrounds this weekend, and knew she couldn't pass it up.

Since beating cancer, losing some sight in her right eye and being diagnosed with borderline multiple sclerosis, Hurtado has gotten the feeling that the time to enjoy life is now.

"I always wanted to go to Spain and do this," she said of running with the bulls. "It's on my bucket list," along with going to a Super Bowl and the Kentucky Derby and "jumping off Niagara Falls, if they let us."

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Runners scramble away from 2,000-pound bovines during the Great Bull Run at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.

Runners scramble away from 2,000-pound bovines during the Great Bull Run at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.

A man is escorted from the corral for medical attention after being trampled by a bull.

A man is escorted from the corral for medical attention after being trampled by a bull.

Bovine and human participants get some exercise in the Great Bull Run at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

Bovine and human participants get some exercise in the Great Bull Run at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

Runners scramble as the bulls approach during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners scramble as the bulls approach during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

The bulls are off and running during the final run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

The bulls are off and running during the final run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

The bulls are off and running during the final run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

The bulls are off and running during the final run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners scramble as the bulls approach during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners scramble as the bulls approach during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Gilberto Martinez gets a kiss from Brigette Arelis, both from Pittsburgh, moments before The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Gilberto Martinez gets a kiss from Brigette Arelis, both from Pittsburgh, moments before The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Jess Blaine and Janelle Baldwin, who travelled from Cincinnati get their games faces on for The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Jess Blaine and Janelle Baldwin, who travelled from Cincinnati get their games faces on for The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners scramble as the bulls approach during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners scramble as the bulls approach during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners make their way to the track for the first run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners make their way to the track for the first run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners celebrate making it through the second run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners celebrate making it through the second run of The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Bulls scramble past the runners during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Bulls scramble past the runners during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

A mad scramble as the bulls and runners take off during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

A mad scramble as the bulls and runners take off during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

People take photos with runner 82-year-old Vern Chatfield of Santa Clara before The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

People take photos with runner 82-year-old Vern Chatfield of Santa Clara before The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Bulls scramble past the runners during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Bulls scramble past the runners during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners scramble as the bulls pass by during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Runners scramble as the bulls pass by during The Great Bull Run on Saturday July 26, 2014, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.

Pleasanton: Thrill seekers stampede to run with bulls

Joining Gonzalez and Hurtado were some 25 members of the family - most running, and some disappointed because they didn't meet the minimum age of 18. They were among the 2,500 people who paid from $50 to $75 to play tag with the bulls Saturday.

They milled around the fairgrounds for half an hour or so before their 11:30 run, the first of several throughout the day.

Up in the bleachers sat 16-year-old Cherish Surrell of Vallejo, barely able to contain her excitement as she looked out over the quarter-mile corral where the bulls were to be released any minute.

"This is one of the biggest races you'll get to do in your life," she said.

Beside her, her mother, Charissa Surrell, 42, shook her head. "This may be a once-in-a-lifetime chance - but not for me."

Her daughter glanced at her. "You don't live your life to the fullest," she said, smiling. "It's on my bucket list."

"Bucket list" was a phrase heard a lot around the fairgrounds Saturday, as people checked off "bulls."

Others were just fascinated by bulls themselves.

"It's just the classic 'man versus beast' idea," said Kelly Weber, 35, of San Jose, running with her husband, Michael Barraza, 53.

The couple follow professional bull riders, or PBRs, as they said in the shorthand of the rodeo sport.

Running with bulls was made famous by the annual event in Pamplona, Spain, where bulls and people run through the streets to mark the San Fermin festival in July.

The American version is intended to be tamer.

"Is running with bulls safe? Of course not!" say the promotional materials, which compare the activity with rock climbing or skydiving, which are done for thrills.

"These bulls are exploited for this event by being forced to run through a narrow chute filled with hundreds of panicked people while being chased by riders on horseback wielding lassos," said Matthew Strugar, director of litigation for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights group.

The group is suing the Great Bull Run and the bulls' owners, Lone Star Rodeo, in San Francisco federal court on grounds that the event violates state laws against animal cruelty and carrying out "a bloodless bullfight contest or exhibition."

The event sponsors say the bulls are well cared for and not frightened into running. Instead, they are acclimated to running through the corral, according to event materials.

As 11:30 approached, Gonzalez and her family joined the crowd entering the corral.

Once inside, the family stayed by the railing. Gonzalez backed into one of several escape nooks built into the side for safety.

But it was hard to imagine safety once the bulls were released. In Pamplona, 15 people have died running with the bulls over the last century.

Then the countdown began: Three. Two. One! And suddenly bulls - brown ones, black ones - thundered up the corral, and the people ran.

Gonzalez was lost amid hordes of hooves and sneakers.

And then it was over. The bulls were gone and the people were left to spit out the dust and wipe grime from their sweaty brows. In the first session, at least, neither the runners nor the bulls were injured.

"That was amazing! Super, super scary," said Lori Gonzalez, 32, a cousin of Alicia Gonzalez.

Jose Ceja, 23, Alicia Gonzalez's son, said it was the best experience of his life.

"I was scared and excited at the same time."

And then Alicia Gonzalez emerged from the crowd, looking shaken.

"I ran about halfway down the course," she croaked out, clearing the dust from her throat. Then she smiled.

"Next time, I'll run all the way."

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: nasimov@sfchronicle.com

Summary: Thrill seekers stampede to run with bulls  Alicia Gonzalez of Oakley is a mild-mannered school clerk with little interest in being gored by a bull, much less trampled, rammed or tossed in the air on the horns of a 2,000-pound beast.  What did I get myself into? asked Gonzalez, 44, wearing black tights and a red tutu and hopping nervously on her toes.  Since beating cancer, losing some sight in her right eye and being diagnosed with borderline multiple sclerosis, Hurtado has gotten the feeling that the time to enjoy life is now.  Up in the bleachers sat 16-year-old Cherish Surrell of Vallejo, barely able to contain her excitement as she looked out over the quarter-mile corral where the bulls were to be released any minute.  Bucket list" was a phrase heard a lot around the fairgrounds Saturday, as people checked off "bulls.  Running with bulls was made famous by the annual event in Pamplona, Spain, where bulls and people run through the streets to mark the San Fermin festival in July.  [...] not! say the promotional materials, which compare the activity with rock climbing or skydiving, which are done for thrills.  The group is suing the Great Bull Run and the bulls' owners, Lone Star Rodeo, in San Francisco federal court on grounds that the event violates state laws against animal cruelty and carrying out "a bloodless bullfight contest or exhibition."


Nearly 40,000 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers could walk off the job if their employer and the United Auto Workers fail to agree on a new contract by midnight on Thursday.

The union presented its rank-and-file members with a deal in mid-September, but the workers rejected it—the first time UAW members had dismissed a national agreement in 33 years. Their sticking point? A two-tiered pay structure.

The deal the UAW initially brokered with Fiat Chrysler was by no means skimpy on compensation. Workers hired before 2007 would get a raise for the first time in 10 years, to nearly $30 per hour, and it would have given entry-level workers wage increases to a range of $17 to $25.23 per hour.

If you think that sounds like a pretty good deal, consider this: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American who works in vehicles and automotive parts made less in September 2015 than he did ten years ago.

Why are autoworkers earning less than they did a decade ago? Part of this has to do with the Big 3’s (Ford, GM, and Fiat Chrysler) two-tier wage model, says Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, a professor of labor and employment relations at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. There are a few other reasons as well. For starters, foreign automakers that have opened manufacturing plants, mainly in the southern United States, have hired non-union workers, meaning they can pay laborers lower wages. Second, during tough economic times, the Detroit automakers struck deals to give their workers lump sum payments instead of annual percentage wage increases. “Those bonuses don’t show up in hourly wages,” Cutcher-Gershenfeld says. And third, in 2007, as the Detroit automakers started to bleed cash, they struck a deal with the UAW to introduce a two-tiered wage system, which gave workers hired after 2007 as much as 45% less pay than employees who were hired earlier.

FCA workers want this two-tiered model eliminated in the ongoing UAW negotiations.

That’s a tall order, considering automakers argue that the tiered system helped save them from demise during the recession because they could more freely hire workers at lower wages, all while narrowing the gap between pay at unionized manufacturing plants and the non-union shops run by foreign carmakers in the South.

While the deal that the FCA employees rejected would have shrunk the pay gap between long-term workers and their entry-level counterparts, it did not achieve what they’re really after: a full path for entry-level workers to transition to the higher tier—where average pay is $28 per hour—and a cap on the share of FCA workers who are relegated to the entry-level.

Right now, 45% of FCA employees are in the lower tier. Workers say that the division has created a class system where people do the same work but receive vastly different wages.

Summary: The average American who works in the auto industry made less in September 2015 than he did ten years ago.


Athlete Oscar Pistorius was sentenced Tuesday to five years imprisonment for the Valentine’s Day killing of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The 27-year-old double-amputee was found guilty of culpable homicide after shooting Steenkamp through the toilet door of his home in Pretoria on Feb. 14, 2013.

The “Blade Runner,” as Pistorius is known due to his trademark prosthetic limbs, claims he thought an intruder lurked inside, but the state maintained that he shot four times with the intention of killing Steenkamp after the couple had argued.

The South African was acquitted of murder by Judge Thokozile Masipa last month after a high-profile trial that was televised around the world.

In sentencing Pistorius, Masipa said she weighed, “The personal circumstances of the accused and interests of society.”

She added: “A non-custodial sentence would send the wrong message to the community, but a long sentence would also not be appropriate.”

Pistorius made history as the first Paralympian to compete against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics. He has apparently been suffering from depression since Steenkamp’s death.

A separate firearms charge received three years imprisonment, suspended for five years.

Read next: Heated Reaction in South Africa to Pistorius Sentence

Summary: The athlete was sentenced for the culpable homicide of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp


Pope Francis has named a former Fox News correspondent to head up the Vatican press office and appointed the tiny state's first-ever female deputy spokesperson.

American Greg Burke, 56, brought in by the Vatican in 2013 to overhaul its public-relations operation, will take up the post on August 1, when outgoing chief spokesman Federico Lombardi steps down.

His deputy will be Spanish journalist Paloma Garcia Overo, 40, previously the Rome and Vatican correspondent for the Spanish broadcaster COPE.

Burke, who also worked as correspondent in Rome for the Catholic weekly National Catholic Reporter and Time magazine, is a "numerary" member of the influential conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, meaning he is a lay person but is celibate.

Vatican watcher John Allen, writing for the Cruxnow website, said the appointments showed the pope's wisdom and strength.

"He's debunked impressions of being anti-American, he's shown that competence matters, and he's signalled openness to groups seen as conservative," he wrote.

"For a bonus, Francis tapped a lay woman as Burke's number two... a veteran journalist who's well-liked and well-respected in the Vatican press corps, and who brings enormous good will to the post".

Jesuit Father Lombardi, who turns 74 next month, steps down after heading up the press office for 10 years, through much of Benedict XVI's papacy -- and his shock resignation -- as well as the first three years of Francis's.

Burke's appointment may rile the Vatican's old guard, the Italians, but it will likely soothe those worried Francis is overly liberal.

"At a time when some see Pope Francis as a liberal stacking the deck with like-minded progressives, this appointment runs counter to the stereotypes," Allen wrote.

Summary: Pope Francis overnight named a former Fox News correspondent to head up the Vatican press office and appointed the tiny state's first-ever female deputy spokesperson.


It might not look like much, but behind the storefront of this butcher shop lies one of the most secretive restaurants in the city. (zandy mangold)

INSIDE — The Japanese restaurant draws an eclectic crowd of food lovers who come for the in-the-know atmosphere — and delicious dishes like the branzino with vegetables. (Zandy Mangold)

There’s a curious little butcher shop on Great Jones Street, the quaint cobblestone thoroughfare that runs between the Bowery and Broadway in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood. Peer into its plate-glass front window and you’ll see a pristine, minimalist space offset by a case of intensely marbled slabs of beef priced as high as $58.99 per pound.

To the casual observer, Japan Premium Beef appears to be just another pricey specialty store catering to a discerning, deep-pocketed clientele. Run by butcher Eiichi Yamamoto since 2009, it exclusively distributes and sells the American Kobe beef known as Washugyu.

But for New Yorkers with a taste for adventure, the shop is also the front for a clandestine Japanese restaurant that’s become the talk — make that the hushed whisper — of the town. Bohemian has a hidden location, a private reservation line and shuns press coverage.

“I have a number of people who call me looking for cool places to go, and Bohemian is at the top of that list. It is my favorite dining experience in New York right now,” says lifestyle consultant William Smolen, who organizes personal food tours of Paris and New York for a client base that includes corporate executives, entrepreneurs and socialites.

When Bohemian opened, the online world was abuzz about a mysterious new downtown spot. But two years on, the restaurant has managed a near-impossible feat — to stay under the radar in a city veritably teeming with faux-speakeasies.

Yes, it is one of the highest-ranked Japanese restaurants on Manhattan Yelp, but no phone number is listed, and a visit to the restaurant’s cryptic Web site, playearth.jp, notes “that the location and contact info is not open to the public.”

Instead, it suggests that those interested in dining at Bohemian send an introduction by way of e-mail to ny-info@playearth.jp. “We may contact you to come over!”

When asked why Bohemian insists on being so exclusive, chef Kiyo Shinoki, who speaks little English, said, “The company, Play Earth, it is their idea. They want to make secret places where you hear about it from a friend of a friend — where family and friends can go and just hang out. That’s the concept.”

Such secrecy has led to a cult-like following, and regulars who fear banishment. “You’re only in the know if you’re in the know,” says a restaurant-consultant friend in possession of the private reservation line. (It took prodding, but he provided the number.)

The woman who answered the phone checked references by repeating the question, “Who gave you the number, please?” before noting that the restaurant shared a front door with Japan Premium Beef at 57 Great Jones St.

Located at the end of a long, narrow hallway, Bohemian resembles less a restaurant than a friend’s apartment — there’s a buzzer for entry and only a few lounge tables. According to the restaurant’s Web site, Andy Warhol once owned the space, which was also the home and studio of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

“It seems like the type of place where somebody would say, ‘Let’s go have a drink at Soho House and then dinner at Bohemian.’ I wonder if the bankers pass around the number or post it on a bulletin board next to Minetta’s private reservation line,” says Bon Appétit restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton, who ate there last year after a colleague gave him the number.

“I think it’s of the ilk of the little-Tokyo vibe. The best comparison is with Sakagura,” adds Knowlton, referring to the Japanese izakaya tucked away in the basement of a Midtown office building.

Bohemian offers a $55, six-course tasting menu that includes Washugyu beef sliders, but also serves à la carte dishes such as oysters with apple cider vinegar and fresh key lime ($18), and Washugyu beef tartare with grilled blue cheese sandwiches ($18). “They get the first choice of meat from the butcher shop in the front, so their sliders are amazing. Everything is so artful,” says lifestyle consultant Smolen.

“They never rush you, and they are really interested in having people come in who are into food. I go all the time and I never see celebrities, and I think that’s because they want to build something different from that,” he adds.

Despite its secrecy, Bohemian, which has a Tokyo branch, doesn’t seem to be interested in the usual exclusivity evident at restaurants such as Minetta Tavern and The Lion — and its popularity on Yelp attests to that.

“Bohemian is basically saying that if you’re crafty enough to figure it out, then you get in,” says restaurant researcher Rachel Bleiweiss-Sande. “On the surface it seems elitist, but underneath it is actually pretty democratic because the people who really want to go and eat the food are going to find the number.”

Smolen adds, “The only reason the reservations are tough is because there are only six tables, but [they] welcome those who love food and want to share in the experience. Thankfully, New York is filled [with] those types of people.”

After a friend gave me Bohemian’s secret phone number and my reference checked out, I was granted a dinner reservation on Friday — and told to enter via Japan Premium Beef at 57 Great Jones St. Once inside, I noticed a long hallway ending at a glass door. It didn’t budge, so my companion pushed the apartment-style buzzer.

A tall Japanese man in a cardigan appeared.

“Yes?” he asked, opening the door a crack.

“Hi, yeah. We’re here for dinner,” I stammered.

“6:30 reservations?” he asked, in a heavy accent.

We were in the elusive dining room, which housed an indoor garden of neatly trimmed Japanese grass, miniature wooden temples and small waterfalls. Along the wall, there was a ledge for an acoustic guitar, ukulele and djembe drum — all covered in signatures.

“Whenever musicians come in, if they want to play, they sign their instrument of choice,” our waiter explained.

He squatted next to us and explained the menu.

On a couch, a few Japanese salarymen shared a meal. Next to them, a mustachioed hipster cuddled with his pencil-thin girlfriend.

Halfway through our fourth course, I saw the bartender pulling ribbons of sugar out of a small saucepan. Noticing my gaze, he waved me over. “Honey candy,” he explained, “for the cocktail.”

The lemon-drop-like drink paired perfectly with Bohemian’s signature dish: a whole grilled branzino with anchovy filets, Kalamata olives, cipollini onions, rosemary stalks and fingerling potatoes.

“How’d you like the branzino?” asked Kiyo Shinoki, the chef. “We get it from Greece every day. Simple flavor.”

Three hours later, we stumbled out, wondering how Bohemian stays in business serving, at most, 75 people per night. And why do they hide? I’m not sure — but I’m happy to be in on the secret.

Summary: It might not look like much, but behind the storefront of this butcher shop lies one of the most secretive restaurants in the city. (zandy mangold)INSIDE — The Japanese restaurant draws an ec…


It’s about time moms started getting free stuff just for, well, being moms. Actually, it’s become tradition for restaurants and retailers to dish out freebies and special deals for moms on Mother’s Day—not only to thank them, but to strategically insert themselves in the good graces of moms all over. These are moms, after all, who tend to make most of their household’s buying decisions, including but hardly limited to where the family goes out to eat.

While there are countless deals marketed for Mother’s Day, our roundup is restricted just to promotions that award moms with something for free. Yes, a purchase is almost always required as well. But hey, we’re suckers for “free.”

Arooga’s Grille House: Moms eat free on Mother’s Day at participating locations at this restaurant and sports bar chain with outlets in Pennsylvania and a few other Mid-Atlantic states. The purchase of another meal of equal or greater value is required.

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s: All moms get a complimentary meal (value up to $10) on Mother’s Day.

Bob Evans: Mothers who eat at a Bob Evans restaurant on Mother’s Day get a voucher good for free coffee on four future visits.

Chicken Salad Chick: This deal for moms is actually available on Friday, May 6, not Mother’s Day. And on Friday, all moms get a free scoop of Classic Carol, the most popular style of chicken salad at this chain with locations through the South and Southeast. Presumably, they’ll put it in a bowl or in a wrap or something, rather than just plopping it into your hand.

Read Next: Here’s a Bill for What You Owe Your Mom

Flemings Steak House: With a minimum purchase of $75 for brunch on Mother’s Day, you’ll receive a $25 gift card valid for a future visit, valid through June 16.

Fogo de Chao: Moms who dine at this Brazilian steakhouse chain on Mother’s Day get a bonus complimentary lunch or dinner on a future visit.

Hooters: Last year, approximately 40,000 moms got free meals on Mother’s Day at Hooters, according to the company. And this year, the chain is again offering a free entrée for moms. The options include buffalo chicken salad, 10-piece order of wings (boneless or original), and the Hooters Burger. Some locations may also give moms a coupon for a free appetizer on a future visit.

Hurricane Grill & Wings: On Mother’s Day, moms visiting Hurricane Wings locations in places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, get free dessert.

Ker’s Winghouse: Moms get a free meal (value up to $10) on Mother’s Day.

McCormick & Schmick’s: Moms who are brunch customers on Mother’s Day are treated to a free chocolate-covered strawberry.

Read Next: Last Minute Mother’s Day Gifts That Are Easy, Cheap—and Surprisingly Thoughtful

Mimi’s Café: When moms eat at Mimi’s on Mother’s Day, they receive a coupon good for a free entrée on a later visit, valid through May 29.

MOD Pizza: At 125 MOD Pizza locations around the country, moms have a choice of a free 11-inch pizza or free salad on Mother’s Day.

Ruth’s Chris: Each mom who dines at Ruth’s Chris on Mother’s Day is handed a $25 gift card good on a future dinner visit.

Shoney’s: All moms eating at Shoney’s on Mother’s Day get a slice of strawberry pie on the house.

Spaghetti Warehouse: Moms who are customers on Mother’s Day will get a free order of lasagna or spaghetti on a future visit.

Read Next: Free Comic Book Day Is This Saturday, May 7

Texas Steakhouse & Saloon: Moms who dine here on Mother’s Day get a coupon good for a free entrée on their next visit.

Wienerschnitzel: Moms who bring in a child, or a photo of their children, will be lucky enough to dine on a chili dog, small fries, and small soda, free of charge on Mother’s Day.

Wildflower Bread Company: This Arizona restaurant and bakery chain awards each mom dining at one of the 14 locations in the state a free loaf of bread (or shortbread cookies, in one spot) on Mother’s Day.

Summary: Free food, free gift cards, and more.