T LOunge for March 8th, 2023

Lusin Restaurant – London, UK

SWANKY! Even if you’re not feeling it, you sure wouldn’t mind looking at it, right? Today’s LOunge is moody and chic, with incredibly flattering lighting. What more could you ask for on a WEDNESDAY? Surround yourself with it.

The 10 greatest speeches of all time, by 10 inspirational women
We celebrate the speeches spoken by great women who have inspired us over the years – and changed our world for the better
It’s easy for women to get lost in a sea of historic rhetoric. The words of Hillary Clinton, Aung San Suu Kyi and Emmeline Pankhurst regularly lose out in the all-time greatest speeches polls to the weight of history.
Swimming against the current, women have had to speak louder to get their voices heard. In the words of Virginia Woolf, they’ve had to create a room of their own. So we’ve rounded up ten inspirational women to celebrate those who found a room and encouraged others to do the same.
In a social and political landscape where women are still under-represented, many of these speeches remain relevant for women fighting for equality. Take for example Emma Watson’s UN “He For She” speech – nearly a decade later we are still are still fighting for equal pay.

Every Unforgettable, Breathtaking Oscar Dress Since 1951
At long last, the red carpet fashion we’ve been craving finally returns. We have no doubt that plenty of actresses and actors will pull out all the stops for 2022’s Academy Awards this Sunday — especially following a few years of pandemic Zooms and fancy pajama sets. But, the truth is, the Oscars has never left us feeling disappointed or craving more glamour. It’s the one event where nominees and their peers pull out all the stops, and that’s always been the case.
Of course, there are always a few looks that truly stand out in the crowd, and end up becoming part of fashion history. For example, who can forget Audrey Hepburn’s sweet Givenchy number? Or the time Lupita Nyong’o went full Disney princess in a plunging Prada creation? It’s time to revisit the most iconic, breathtaking Oscars dresses of all time.

Prabal Gurung’s New JCPenney Collab Goes Up to Size 24 — and Every Piece Is Under $100
“Beauty is inclusion in every size, every color. That is the world I live in and the world I wanted to create.”
“This collaboration with JCPenney is a joyful tribute to the power and resilience of the female spirit,” Gurung said in a press release. “This collection is a celebration of diversity, inclusion, and optimism and is an ode to the women who have held my hand and helped me grow. To me, beauty is inclusion in every size, every color, and that is the world I live in and the world I wanted to create with this collection.”
The collection includes dresses in solids and patterns as well as allover sequins. There’s also a jumpsuit, a shirtdress, and everything between, including the perfect pieces for cocktails, summer weddings, and isn’t Mother’s Day brunch coming up on the calendar soon?

I am a Goth, and I Am a Mom, and I Am Proud
What happens when a high-drama, fashion-obsessed subculture hits middle age?
Goth has always been a complicated subculture. Inspired by the Victorian romantics, who were in turn inspired by medieval architecture, it’s derivative squared. Goth as we know it slinked from the ashes of punk, giving that harsh rebellion some velvety aftercare. It held onto the shock value, but introduced haunting melodies, a hint of the supernatural, the last laugh of ennui, entropy, and decay. If punks had been all fired up about having no future, goths calmly sipped some opium tea and maintained none of us humans has ever had much of a future, what with death always lurking around the corner. If punk claimed anarchy as its philosophical mascot, goths were all about the existential. If punk was a punch, goth was a swoon.

Is 2023 the Year Looted Art Returns Home?
A timeline of all the artwork repatriated this year.
Repatriation, and restitution, will be the big headline in the art world in 2023.
In France, politicians proposed three laws aimed at speeding up the process, addressing the return of human remains in museum collections, art belonging to Jewish families during World War II, and restitution of art from the colonial era. “I hope 2023 will be a year of decisive progress for restitutions,” French culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said in a speech, per ARTNews.

Pope Francis Will Return Vatican’s Parthenon Sculptures to Greece
Three pieces of the Parthenon in the papal collections will be given to the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece.
The Vatican announced in December 2022 that Pope Francis is returning three pieces of the Parthenon that have been in the Vatican’s collections for over a century. The deal was finalized in March 2023, and the works are expected to arrive in Athens this month.
The Vatican called the return a “donation” from Pope Francis to Ieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, “as a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth.” It is not clear if Ieronymous will then return the sculptures to the Acropolis Museum.

Elisapie Is the Inuk Singer With Intentional Indigenous Style
Inuk singer Elisapie developed her love of music in a place that you’ve likely never heard of before. The Juno Award–winning musician was born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik (Quebec, Canada) that is only accessible by plane. Elisapie recalls always being surrounded by the art of song in the remote setting. Her uncle, George Kakayuk, was in the popular 1970s rock band Sugluk, and she recalls often performing with the group when she was young for fun. “I had the privilege to be around them, because I think they knew I was musically sensitive,” says Elisapie. “We would hang out, jam, and make music.” Her adoptive mother even encouraged Elisapie to call in and sing for the local radio station. “I was already searching for an audience,” Elisapie says.

‘It’s About Spreading Hate’: RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Aura Mayari Strikes Back Against the Tennessee Drag Ban
“Play is one of the few queer bars in Nashville and is one of the most welcoming establishments in town. It caters to people of different genders, ages, and sexual orientations. Looking out into the crowd at a drag show, you have no idea who is queer and who isn’t because all are welcome,” Mayari says. While performances at Play will remain legal due to the venue’s age restrictions, the fate of scores of Mayari’s peers in Nashville is more uncertain. “I’ve met so many wonderful and talented queens who have created their own space in the community—for example, by doing brunch shows or performances on Nashville’s strip—who are in danger of losing their jobs,” she says.

The Secret to Getting (and Staying) Organized Might Be Choosing a System Based on Your Personality Type
Set up storage solutions with your key character traits in mind and you’re more likely to stick to them, our experts say.
Your personality type says a lot about who you are—and even plays a role in the things you’re drawn to, from the paint colors that make you calm to the hobbies that bring you joy. It has a practical application, too: Better understanding your personality type can help you tidy up at home. According to our experts, the secret to getting and staying organized involves creating a system that speaks to your personality traits—which is good news for anyone who has struggled to follow more conventional methods in the past.

Why Every Home Cook Needs a Wok—and How to Identify a Quality Pan
You’ll use this piece of cookware for stir-fries and so much more.
A great wok gives you deliciously seared stir-fries at home—but that’s just the beginning. Pros know that the pan is also suited to many cooking techniques, from steaming dumplings and pan-frying bacon and steaks to making scrambled eggs or even popcorn. Best of all, a good wok isn’t expensive and you’ll use it often, so long as you buy one with the right attributes that make it both user-friendly and durable. Ultimately, the material, size, and shape determine how well it performs.

8 Items You Should Never Put in the Dishwasher
Hand washing these things will prevent any potential damage or warping under the high temperatures and strong water pressure of your dishwasher.
Your dishwasher is a handy appliance that cleans dishes, cookware, utensils, and more kitchen items quickly and efficiently. While it would be convenient if you could wash everything in the dishwasher after using it to cook or eat, that’s simply not the case. Some items must be washed by hand to maintain the integrity of not just your appliance, but your kitchen tools.
Using the appliance to clean things that aren’t dishwasher safe can cause them to become damaged or warped during the wash cycle. While you should always check the manufacturer’s instructions before cleaning serveware and cookware, there are some pieces that should never be put in the dishwasher.

Here are 5 feminist petitions to sign this International Women’s Day
Let’s make a difference!
International Women’s Day 2023 is finally upon us and what better way is there to celebrate than by doing our part to make the world more equal?
It has been reported that men start more petitions, but according to change.org, it is women under 35 that win the most. So what are we waiting for?
Here are five petitions being run by women that you should sign to help make the world a better place for women and girls.

4 Influential Women Reflect On What Freedom Means To Them
‘When I think of freedom, I think of boundless opportunity and happiness – but it isn’t that simple’
It can often be too easy to take the freedoms we have for granted – the freedom to voice our opinions, pursue our interests and express ourselves creatively, to name just a few. But research suggests that for many, freedom has never been more under attack than it has in the past year, with the UN Women Gender Snapshot Report 2022 highlighting the ways that access to education, financial independence and religious choice are still denied to women around the world.

Do You Speak New York Times?
A Twitter bot shows how the newspaper has come to shape mainstream English usage.
What is a newspaper? Though a few decades ago the answer might have been obvious, it’s no longer so easy to say. Newspapers have long been about more than just news; they appear less and less on paper and, despite their geographically inflected names, aren’t firmly rooted in any particular place. The New York Times is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of an old-fashioned extra-extra-hear-all-about-it newspaper, but it’s also the poster child for the medium’s metamorphosis. The aim of the Times, according to its last available annual report, is to “be the essential subscription for every English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world.”

A 138-year-old Victorian mansion in Michigan that’s been a bed and breakfast for 3 decades is on the market for $749,900 — check it out
The Heather House — a bed and breakfast in Michigan — is on the market for $749,900.
Housed in a 138-year-old Victorian mansion, the B&B comes with seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
Helen and Mark Lally, the owners, took over the business in 2014 but say it’s time for them to retire.

The Difference Between Contouring and Bronzing, According to Makeup Artists
While the two products look extremely similar, they actually have very different uses. Here, we break down how and when to use contour and bronzer.
If you clicked on this article, chances are you also find yourself googling random questions related to beauty, like, “How much blush should I wear?” or “How do I line my lips?” While they are all valid questions, we believe there’s no right or wrong way to do your makeup. But sometimes a little direction is necessary — even in an office full of beauty editors — and such is the case with contour versus bronzer. Because, truly, the products look practically identical. Unless, of course, you are a professional makeup artist… which is why we decided to enlist a few of the world’s best to explain the difference between the two popular categories once and for all.

‘Black history is part of history’: stars of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on the importance of representation on screen
Hitting Netflix in May, the hotly-anticipated Bridgerton prequel will go back in time to follow Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in her younger years
As anticipation rises, some of the show’s stars have opened up about the making of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Former Tatler cover star Golda Rosheuvel, Bridgerton’s fabulous monarch, said that it was ‘beautiful’ and ‘bloody marvelous’ to be involved in the series, telling Digital Spy that ‘to celebrate Black history is really… important, and through a female protagonist, [a] female historical character’. She added: ‘it’s an extraordinary story because… it’s one of love which is very rare I think… to bring that to the forefront of the world we’re living in now and to really celebrate that’.

The Essential Patricia Highsmith
Known for her psychopathic antiheroes and novels such as “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “The Price of Salt,” Highsmith was a tangle of contradictions.
Though I have been a reader of crime fiction all of my adult life, I avoided the work of Patricia Highsmith (1921-95) until my early 30s. Bleak worldviews weren’t the issue; perhaps it was the unconscious feeling that spending too much time in Highsmith’s brain might alter mine irrevocably.
What finally opened the trapdoor was Joan Schenkar’s nonlinear, idiosyncratic biography, “The Talented Miss Highsmith” (2009). (Another Highsmith biography, released in 2003, Andrew Wilson’s “Beautiful Shadow,” is also worth seeking out, though I’d skip Richard Bradford’s 2021 effort, “Devils, Lusts, and Strange Desires.”) Schenkar, who died in 2021, made Highsmith seem so relentlessly complicated, maddening and fascinating that I had to know how that specific mind produced her books.

The Incredible Journey of Barbara T. Smith
With a new exhibition and memoir, a trailblazing California performance artist gets her due
In her new memoir The Way to Be, artist Barbara T. Smith describes “sliding around naked in mayonnaise” between pieces of foam shaped like two slices of bread.
She recounts reaching for her then lover, a “similarly slathered large, naked man” as they searched for a foil-wrapped piece of chicken. “I had just received my divorce papers,” Smith writes, “and this thing I was doing was soon to be called performance art.”
The memoir and accompanying exhibition, Barbara T. Smith: The Way to Be, celebrate the career of a long-underrecognized California artist. “Her art, her writing, and her personal life are inextricably intertwined, and we are honored to offer a space for Smith to finally tell her story,” says Getty curator Pietro Rigolo, who curated the show alongside Glenn Phillips. Chronicling her first 50 years, from 1931 to 1981, the exhibition relates Smith’s narrative in her own words—drawn from the memoir, her archive, and a series of interviews with the curators—while highlighting her important role in the history of art.

Notre Dame Expected to Reopen to Visitors Next Year
While construction will not be complete until 2025, the goal is to have the beloved monument open to the public by 2024.
Paris’ famous Notre Dame cathedral is expected to welcome visitors by the end of 2024.
The reconstruction, which started last year, isn’t expected to be finished until 2025. But the army general in charge of the project, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, told the Associated Press his goal is to reopen to the public in December 2024.
The team is rebuilding the cathedral’s iconic spire, which collapsed during the fire in 2019. (The spire was added by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc during the 19th-century restoration of the cathedral.) Visitors to the site can expect to see the reconstructed 315-foot spire gradually reappear this year.

[Photo Credit: lusinrestaurant.com]

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