“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Monday January 19th — —

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” – Herbert Simon — Monday January 19th — —

The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Monday January 19th — —

Jocks&Nerds 13

We recently wrote about the inspirational online project of quarterly men’s style magazine Jocks&Nerds together with Detroit-based brand Shinola. Now it is time to shine some light on the core activities of Jocks&Nerds, which recently released its 13th printed issue, for Winter 2014/2015, being another high quality addition to their overal output. The London-based magazine released the very first issue in Autumn 2011, since which it has been producing insightful, photography driven stories, both online and in the printed quarterly on style, history and culture. With as a result topics ranging from pop culture and fashion to literature, art and film, created by Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director Marcus Agerman Ross and his team. The current issue that hit the stands worldwide and online in December features a list of great stories, starting with cover star Wong Kar Wai, who released his film ‘The Grandmaster’ on Kung Fu myth Ip Man in the USA at the end of last year. Other stories to be found in the 13th release feature musician Brian Wilson, photographer Gordon Parks, a beautiful editorial shot by Ned Wolfgang Kelly, director Martin Scorsese, a story on the history of (professional) basketball in New York City and finally a tremendous story on soul singer Sam Cooke.

With both the cover star, Chinese filmdirector Wong Kar Wai, and one of the best modern American directors, Martin Scorsese, being featured in this issue, makes this an extraordinary edition for those who love films. Scorsese’s highly impressive filmography, with at least 5 films of his considered as a modern classic, passes the revue in the article. But that doesn’t mean the 72-years-old is settling down in any way, in the contrary, he continues to be busier than ever with two films in production, two in planning and a new Terrence Winter collaborative HBO series (following Boardwalk Empire) coming up. His Chinese colleague has a distinct slower pace in producing films, he nevertheless has been responsible for an also highly remarkable career with some incredibly important films as well.

The article looks back at those, oftenly raw, at times uneasy, but always deeply romantic films of which ‘In The Mood For Love’ continues to be regarded as the masterpiece of the filmdirector and regular collaborator, cameraman Christopher Doyle. His most recent film ‘The Grandmaster’ was received with mixed reviews, although it is another exemplifying film for the tactility that Kar Wai marks every project with, despite that fact that a ‘classical’ Kung Fu film is a rather unique genre for the filmdirector, which does feature his favorite acting choice, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, as the legendary master of Bruce Lee.

But in contrary to most modern lifestyle magazines, next to modern pop culture and fashion, Jocks&Nerds also reserves a significant amount of pages for historical stories. As we are in the middle of engaging ourselves into the realm of the sunglasses, we particularly love the rather short, but insightful story on the coolest of all accessories. One learns that the first sun ‘glasses’ were invented in 12th-century China – being no more than then two crude chunks of smoked quartz positioned on wooden arms to block out sunlight. Over the centuries, without a doubt, it became the most important signifier of everything considered rock and roll, to which we hopefully can add a own little chapter in the near future, stay with us for our interpretation of the perfect pair.

For more information and the online content by Jocks&Nerds see here.

For information on the stockists of the magazine see here.