The Top 10 Fashion Moments of 2023

Fashion has always been a reflection of society, and 2023 was no exception. The sartorial moments that made a splash were a pretty good gauge of the things we couldn’t stop talking or thinking about this year. In an uncertain world still recovering from the pandemic, rife with international conflict and at risk of global recession, economics often dominated the discourse, even when it came to fashion. How else to explain the obsession with quiet luxury in the early months of 2023, reinforced by the final season of Succession and a highly publicized trial for stealth wealth icon Gwyneth Paltrow?

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Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, the spending power of women was on full display with the run on themed outfits and merchandise this summer for the very pink Barbie movie, Taylor Swift’s friendship bracelet-laden Eras tour, and Beyoncé’s silver, disco-inspired Renaissance tour. The girl-power triumvirate was lauded for giving a much-needed boost to the global economy—and making everyone’s closet a little pinker and a little sparklier.

Read more: 2023 Is One Big Costume Party

It would be impossible to ignore the ways in which fashion was also symbolic of the sizable shifts happening in society; the WGA and SAG strikes in Hollywood shut down red carpets in favor of picket lines. Meanwhile, an exodus of creative directors at designer fashion houses and the appointment of new, primarily white talent sparked much-needed conversations about representation in the industry, especially when it comes to leadership.

And while the standout events in fashion may have been emblematic of the weightier issues in the world, there were also plenty of moments of levity, like Rihanna announcing her second pregnancy with a showstopping all-red outfit during her Super Bowl halftime performance. And there were moments of pure viral delight, like Jared Leto dressing as Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld’s cat, for the Met Gala or the viral tale of a woman whose one-night stand absconded with her Margiela Tabi shoes before ghosting her, forcing her into the role of amateur sleuth to get them back and making her a heroine to the disgruntled fashionistas of the Internet.

Here, the top 10 fashion moments that defined the year.

Rihanna announces her pregnancy at the Super Bowl halftime show

Leave it to Rihanna to use one of the biggest stages in the world to announce her personal news. The bad gal announced her second pregnancy with her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky, while headlining the Super Bowl halftime show in February, and she did it in style. Clad in a custom all-red Loewe flight-inspired jumpsuit with a gleaming metallic breastplate, an Alaia jacket, and Margiela x Salomon sneakers, the singer used her outfit to showcase a growing baby bump, which she emphasized by gently touching her stomach during the performance. The gesture was subtle, but set off an online firestorm of speculation, which, in turn, sparked its own backlash about whether or not netizens of the Internet should be speculating about a woman’s body. As always, Rihanna emerged from the buzz triumphant, confirming the pregnancy through a rep following the show.

Read more: The Subversive Brilliance of Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Cats were the hottest costume at the Met Gala

While Karl Lagerfeld’s complicated legacy as one of fashion’s most opinionated talents was a point of discourse during the 2023 Met Gala, one point that everyone could agree on was that Choupette, Lagerfeld’s pampered blue-cream Birman cat, was one of the most influential figures of the night. Stars like Doja Cat and Lil Nas X channeled Choupette with their designer looks, donning cat ears, and in Doja’s case, prosthetics, for a feline look. (She also responded to interview questions by purring.) Jared Leto upped the ante by interpreting Choupette’s look literally, showing up to the gala in a full cat costume.

Quiet luxury dominates the discourse

Quiet luxury emerged as the top trend at the start of 2023, sparking countless conversations about the presentation of wealth and class along with it. It was fueled by the final season of Succession, a show on which Shiv Roy’s stealth-wealth power dressing has long embodied the qualities of quiet luxury (minimalist clothing, fine tailoring, and tasteful, obscenely expensive accessories) as well as the highly publicized ski trial of Gwyneth Paltrow, where the actor and Goop founder, long notorious for her patrician tastes, sported a number of understated designer outfits that went viral on social media.

The very pink Barbie takeover

If you were looking for a visual manifestation of the reach of Barbie, the undeniable blockbuster hit of the year, you’d need look no further than the proliferation of pink, from the runway to high street fashion. All shades of the rosy hue, from bubblegum pink to neon fuchsia, were spotted this summer, especially at movie screenings of the film, where viewers often dressed up in “Barbiecore,” a.k.a. pink and often Barbie-inspired outfits. Of course, the most prominent ambassador of Barbiecore was Barbie star Margot Robbie, whose press tour outfits were replicas of famous Barbie looks throughout the years.

Read more: The Long, Complicated, and Very Pink History of Barbiecore

Swifties give new life to friendship bracelets on the Eras tour

While there are plenty of ways to identify a Taylor Swift fan, the most overt way may be to look at the stacks of colorful friendship bracelets adorning the wrist. This summer, as Swifties took over stadiums across the world, friendship bracelets that spelled out references to Swift’s songs, albums or eras, were made and shared at concerts. It wasn’t uncommon for fans to share their bracelets with complete strangers or venue staff; in fact, it became one of the most integral parts of the Eras tour experience, exchanging friendship bracelets with fellow fans. The trend was birthed from a single song lyric from “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” a track on Swift’s 2022 album, Midnights: “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it,” but has now become a such a Swiftie staple that there were reported bead shortages this summer.

Read more: Taylor Swift Is TIME’s Person of the Year

Beyoncé sparks a silver revolution with the Renaissance tour

Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour was a celebration of disco and club culture and the fan looks more than reflected that. Concertgoers got decked out in all-silver and metallic looks, sparing no detail when it came to glitter, glitz, and sequins to attend Club Renaissance. Beyhive members also took cues from Queen Bey herself, accessorizing with bedazzled cowboy hats, in a nod to her Texas roots, and dressing in all silver, per her request, for her special birthday concert in Los Angeles.

The WGA and SAG strikes trade in red carpets for picket lines

After both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions voted to strike this summer, red carpets and press tours came to a halt. Actors traded in their designer gowns and suits for union t-shirts and protest signs to join the picket lines alongside writers. Call it labor chic, but it was a fashion statement that held some real impact, as both unions ended their strikes with historic gains.

Julia Fox turned her book tour into a runway

There may be no public figure of this generation as sartorially iconic and iconoclastic as Julia Fox. The actor, who went from downtown NYC It girl to internationally recognized celebrity after attending the Schiaparelli fashion show with some dramatic eyeliner, a very good outfit, and a controversial artist as arm candy, knows the power of presentation and isn’t afraid to have fun or set tongues wagging with her daring outfits. Case in point? The tongue-in-cheek looks she’s sported this year while promoting her memoir; from a cheeky Chopova Lowena schoolgirl-inspired look to an oversized Luar suit, Fox is one to watch.

Read more: Julia Fox Perfects the Art of the Overshare With Her New Memoir, Down the Drain

Changing of the guards at fashion houses sparks dialogue about diversity

This year saw the exits of multiple creative directors from prominent fashion houses: Gabriela Hearst from Chloé, Sarah Burton from Alexander McQueen, Jeremy Scott from Moschino, and Tom Ford from his eponymous label, to name a few. This industry shuffle sparked discourse about who the new guard of creative leaders might be. Given discussions in recent years about the need for more diversity in all positions in the industry, many saw this moment as an opportunity to put those intentions into action. However, when many of the new appointments came in, they were overwhelmingly white and male; at Kering, one of the biggest and most influential luxury groups in the world, all of the creative directors are now white men. The moves confirmed to those pushing for change from within and outside of the industry that there’s still much more work to be done.

The Tabi Thief takes over the Internet

@nextlevellexuss

Girls and gays of TikTok please get to work 😭 #nycdating #tinderhorrorstories #hingedating #margielatabis #nyc#greenscreen

♬ bad idea right? – Olivia Rodrigo

No story in the fashionsphere was as bizarre or captivating as the tale of the Tabi Thief. A TikTok user and knitwear designer named Lexus took to the platform to share the horrifying yet hilarious story of how a man she connected with on a dating app stole her Maison Margiela Tabi Mary Jane shoes then ghosted her. (For the uninitiated, Maison Margiela is one of the most coveted and avant garde fashion brands; a pair of their Tabi Mary Janes retail for over $1000.) As is to be expected, the story went viral, with disgruntled fashionistas across the Internet coming to Lexus’ defense. Internet sleuths soon exposed the Tabi thief and Lexus was reunited with her shoes. At least there was one happy ending in a year full of fashion ups and downs.

source https://time.com/6548065/top-fashion-moments-2023/

Meta’s Review Board Rules to Reinstate Two Video Posts About the Israel-Hamas War

MENLO PARK, Calif. — A quasi-independent review board has ruled that Facebook parent company Meta should overturn two decisions it made this fall to remove posts “informing the world about human suffering on both sides” of the Israel-Hamas war.

In both cases, Meta ended up reinstating the posts — one showing Palestinian casualties and the other, an Israeli hostage — on its own, although it added warning screens to both due to violent content. This means the company isn’t obligated to do anything about the board’s decision.

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That said, the board also said it disagrees with Meta’s decision to bar the posts in question from being recommended by Facebook and Instagram, “even in cases where it had determined posts intended to raise awareness.” And it said Meta’s use of automated tools to remove “potentially harmful” content increased the likelihood of taking down “valuable posts” that not only raise awareness about the conflict but may contain evidence of human rights violations. It urged the company to preserve such content.

The Oversight Board, established three years ago by Meta, issued its decisions Tuesday in what it said was its first expedited ruling — taking 12 days rather than the usual 90.

In one case, the board said, Instagram removed a video showing what appears to be the aftermath of a strike on or near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The post shows Palestinians, including children, injured or killed. Meta’s automated systems removed the post saying it violated its rules against violent and graphic content. While Meta eventually reversed its decision, the board said, it placed a warning screen on the post and demoted it, which means it was not recommended to users and fewer people saw it. The board said it disagrees with the decision to demote the video.

The other case concerns video posted to Facebook of an Israeli woman begging her kidnappers not to kill her as she is taken hostage during the Hamas raids on Israel on Oct. 7.

Users appealed Meta’s decision to remove the posts and the cases went to the Oversight Board. The board said it saw an almost three-fold increase in the daily average of appeals marked by users as related to the Middle East and North Africa region in the weeks following Oct. 7.

Meta said it welcomes the board’s decision.

“Both expression and safety are important to us and the people who use our services. The board overturned Meta’s original decision to take this content down but approved of the subsequent decision to restore the content with a warning screen. Meta previously reinstated this content so no further action will be taken on it,” the company said. “There will be no further updates to this case, as the board did not make any recommendations as part of their decision.”

In a briefing on the cases, the board said Meta confirmed it had temporarily lowered thresholds for automated tools to detect and remove potentially violating content.

“While reducing the risk of harmful content, it also increased the likelihood of mistakenly removing valuable, non-violating content from its platforms,” the Oversight Board said, adding that as of Dec. 11, Meta had not restored the thresholds to pre-Oct. 7 levels.

Meta, then called Facebook, launched the Oversight Board in 2020 in response to criticism that it wasn’t moving fast enough to remove misinformation, hate speech and influence campaigns from its platforms. The board has 22 members, a multinational group that includes legal scholars, human rights experts and journalists.

The board’s rulings, such as in these two cases, are binding but its broader policy findings are advisory and Meta is not obligated to follow them.

source https://time.com/6549487/meta-review-board-israel-hamas-war-posts/

The 39 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

Summer blockbusters, action-packed thrillers, sweet rom-coms, and much-anticipated sequels are all on the movie slate for 2024. The upcoming year for movies promises to be one for the books, especially with the long-awaited releases of films that were delayed as a result of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. From dramatic biopics like Bob Marley: One Love and the Amy Winehouse film Back to Black to epic sequels like Dune: Part Two and Beetlejuice 2, here are 38 films to look forward to in the new year.

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The Book of Clarence (Jan. 12)

Jeymes Samuel’s (The Harder They Fall) dark comedy leans on Biblical inspiration for some decidedly irreverent humor. For Clarence (Lakeith Stanfield), staying on the path of righteousness is a challenge, but he’s inspired to emulate Jesus Christ, especially after he sees the fame and accolades the latter gets from doing his good deeds. Eyeing an opportunity to capitalize on the star power of Jesus, Clarence begins faking miracles, a lucrative hustle that goes well until the Roman empire comes calling.

Mean Girls: The Musical (Jan. 12)

Mean Girls will be back on the big screen with the film adaptation of the 2018 hit Broadway musical based on Tina Fey’s 2004 cult classic movie. Reneé Rapp will return to the role she played on Broadway as Queen Bee Regina George, while Angourie Rice will star as new girl Cady Heron. Fey and fellow SNL alum Tim Meadows will reprise their roles from the original movie as math teacher Ms. Norbury and Principal Duvall, respectively.

Lisa Frankenstein (Feb. 9)

A dark romance blossoms between a misunderstood teenage goth named Lisa (Kathryn Newton) and The Creature, a handsome Victorian corpse that she reanimates (Cole Sprouse), in this a horror comedy written by Juno’s Diablo Cody. The pair’s pursuit of romantic bliss turns into a wild murder spree as they attempt to source missing body parts for The Creature.

Madame Web (Feb. 14)

Dakota Johnson enters the world of Marvel comics as Cassandra Webb, the paramedic heroine grappling with her clairvoyant abilities in Madame Web. As Cassie reckons with dark secrets from her past and her newfound psychic abilities, she assumes responsibility for ensuring that a trio of young girls, who will be profoundly influential in the future, survive a deadly adversary.

Bob Marley: One Love (Feb. 14)

The life and legacy of Jamaican singer and songwriter Bob Marley is the subject of this new biopic starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as the iconic reggae artist. The film, which was produced in partnership with the Marley family, charts his rise to fame, including an attempted 1976 shooting at his home, his longtime time advocacy for peace, and his prolific music career, up until his untimely death in 1981.

Drive-Away Dolls (Feb. 23)

Ethan Coen will make his solo directorial debut outside of his work as part of the Coen Brothers with Drive-Away Dolls, the queer roadtrip buddy comedy he co-wrote with his partner and longtime collaborator Tricia Cooke. The film stars Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan as friends and roommates whose spontaneous road trip to Tallahassee is undermined by a gang of amateur criminals.

Dune: Part Two (March 1)

Timothée Chalamet returns as the defiant hero Paul Atriedes for the second installation of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the classic sci-fi saga. In this new chapter, Paul joins forces with his love interest Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen, to avenge his family and bring peace to the planet of Arrakis.

Spaceman (March 1)

Adam Sandler stars in this Netflix original about an astronaut on a mission to the outer reaches of the solar system who strikes up an unexpected friendship with a creature (voiced by Paul Dano) who has stowed away on his spaceship, as he worries over his relationship with his wife back home (Carey Mulligan).

Damsel (March 8)

Millie Bobby Brown is no damsel in distress in Damsel, Netflix’s fantasy flick that subverts the traditional fairy tale princess narrative. In the film, Brown plays Princess Elodie, a young woman betrothed to marry a prince, who discovers that her engagement was actually an elaborate ruse to sacrifice her as part of an ancient debt that claimed the lives of many women before her. Elodie must brave steep cliffs, harsh weather, and a fire-breathing dragon if she wants to escape this fate.

The American Society of Magical Negroes (March 22)

Writer and director Kobi Libii turns the racist trope of the “Magical Negro” on its head with The American Society of Magical Negroes. In the satirical film, Justice Smith stars as Aren, a young Black man who is recruited to be a part of a secret society of magical Black people who derive their power from the act of making white people’s lives easier.

Mickey 17 (March 29)

Bong Joon-ho’s much-anticipated film adaptation of Edward Ashton’s science fiction thriller, Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as the titular Mickey 17, an “expendable” space traveler sent on a deadly mission to colonize Niflheim. When Mickey dies, his body is cloned with most of his memories intact, setting off a cycle that parallels immortality.

Challengers (April 26)

A tense love triangle ups the stakes for a trio of elite tennis players in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. Zendaya stars as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy who now coaches her husband, Art (Mike Faist). Sparks fly when she signs him up for a Challenger match, where he’ll face off with Patrick (Josh O’Connor), his former best friend—and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.

Civil War (April 26)

Alex Garland’s dystopian thriller, his first since 2018’s Annihilation, imagines a deeply divided America in the not-so-distant future, ravaged by a violent second civil war. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, and Jesse Plemons, the film probes just how far people will go to defend their beliefs.

The Fall Guy (May 3)

In this big-screen adaptation of the 1980s TV series of the same name, Ryan Gosling brings the action as Colt Seavers, a past-his-prime stuntman who is reunited with Jody (Emily Blunt), an ex-flame, after he’s hired for a job on a movie she’s directing. After the star of Jody’s film goes missing, Seavers must find the missing actor to finish the film, but the discovery of a criminal plot threatens to upend not only his mission, but his job and his plan to win back the love of his life.

Back to Black (May 10)

In the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, director Sam Taylor-Johnson revisits the late musician’s rise to fame and the release of her acclaimed album of the same name. Starring Marisa Abela (Industry) as Winehouse, the film is told from the singer’s perspective, giving an intimate look at the complex woman behind the music and the relationship that inspired her final legendary album.

IF (May 17)

A young girl’s (Cailey Fleming) extraordinary power to see forgotten imaginary friends sends her on a journey to save them from being lost forever in this heartwarming film written, directed by, and co-starring John Krasinski. Featuring a star-studded cast led by Ryan Reynolds, it’s a fantastical romp that’s entirely family friendly.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (May 24)

In George Miller’s epic Mad Max prequel, Anya Taylor-Joy stars as a young Furiosa, before she became a formidable imperator. After Furiosa is kidnapped by the warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and forced to leave the Green Place of Many Mothers, she must fight for her life and her freedom across the barren wasteland as she tries to make her way back home.

Garfield (May 24)

Everyone’s favorite, perpetually hungry orange cat embarks on a wild adventure in The Garfield Movie. After Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt) reunites with his long-lost father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), a slick street cat, he and his hapless dog friend Odie (Harvey Guillén) get roped into helping Vic with a high-stakes scheme that challenges their comfortable suburban existence.

Inside Out 2 (June 14)

Adolescence provides ripe fodder for the sequel to Pixar’s 2015 film about the emotions that run the mind of Riley, a young girl. Emotions from the first film Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and Anger (Lewis Black) find their world turned upside down as Riley enters her teenage years and new emotions, like Anxiety (Maya Hawke), enter the scene.

Horizon: An American Saga: Film 1 (June 28)

Kevin Costner brings his all to the American West with Horizon: An American Saga: Film 1, the first of two installments for his epic film about post-Civil War expansion in the States. The movie, which takes place over the course of 15 years, is a veritable passion project for Costner, who has devoted the last 30 years to it and wrote, directed and stars in it.

A Quiet Place: Day One (June 28)

This spin-off prequel is the third installment in the A Quiet Place franchise. Starring Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, the film, which shows the beginning of the invasion of aliens with super hearing, is written and directed by Michael Sarnoski.

Despicable Me 4 (July 3)

The latest installment of the Despicable Me franchise sees Steve Carrell reprising his role as reformed supervillain Gru and will feature a script written by White Lotus creator Mike White.

Twisters (July 19)

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung will helm Twisters, the sequel to 1996’s Twister. While the film is not a continuation of the original film, it promises to deliver the same thrills and disasters that made the original a box-office hit. According to screenwriter Mark L. Smith, the film will focus on how climate change affects the fearsome storms.

Deadpool 3 (July 26)

Ryan Reynolds revives his foul-mouthed superhero once more for Deadpool 3, the long-awaited third sequel for the “Merc with a Mouth.” The film, which also stars Hugh Jackman reprising his role as Wolverine, finds the two superheroes teaming up to defeat a common enemy.

Horizon: An American Saga: Film 2 (Aug. 16)

The second installment of Kevin Costner’s epic about the American West returns two months after its first release. Costner leads a star-studded cast that includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, and Luke Wilson.

Beetlejuice 2 (Sept. 6)

Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton will reprise their iconic roles as Lydia Deetz and Betelgeuse in Beetlejuice 2, Tim Burton’s sequel to his 1988 hit horror comedy. The film also stars scream queen of the moment, Jenna Ortega, as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, as well as Willem Dafoe and Monica Belluci in supporting roles.

Joker: Folie à Deux (Oct. 4)

In the much-anticipated sequel to Todd Phillips’ 2019 film Joker, Joaquin Phoenix reprises his Oscar-winning role as dastardly villain Arthur Fleck, while Lady Gaga stars as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a psychologist at Arkham Asylum, whose attempts to treat the Joker lead to her own descent into madness and the adoption of a new persona, Harley Quinn. Zazie Beetz will return as Fleck’s neighbor, Sophie Dumond. 

Gladiator 2 (Nov. 22)

Ridley Scott revisits the Roman Empire with Gladiator 2. For this epic sequel, Paul Mescal stars as a now-grown Lucius Verus (Commodus’ a.k.a. Joaquin Phoenix’s nephew who was saved by Maximus a.k.a. Russell Crowe in the original Gladiator) as he seeks answers about his biological father.

Wicked Part 1 (Nov. 27)

The origin story of one of the world’s most misunderstood witches hits the big screen on Thanksgiving 2024 with the first of two installments of Jon Chu’s adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical. Bringing to life the origin story of The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, from her perspective, the movie stars Cynthia Ervio as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda.

Mufasa: The Lion King (Dec. 20)

The origin story of Mufasa, Simba’s late father, will come to life in Mufasa: The Lion King, the live-action prequel to be helmed by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins. Starring Aaron Pierre as the voice of Mufasa, the film will address the backstory of the lion leader and his relationship with his younger brother, Scar.

Nosferatu (Dec. 25)

The Witch director Robert Eggers will helm a new adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s iconic 1922 silent film Nosferatu, reinterpreting its tale of a bloodthirsty, bubonic plague-spreading vampire and the tortured young woman he’s obsessed with. Eggers’ remake will star Bill Skarsgard as the infamous vampire and Lily-Rose Depp as the object of his infatuation.

Dates TBA

Babes

Better Things creator Pamela Adlon makes her directorial feature debut with Babes, a comedy about Eden, an aggressively single woman (Ilana Glazer), who gets pregnant from a one-night stand. After deciding to keep the baby, Eden relies heavily on her best friend Dawn (Michelle Buteau), a married mother of two, to guide her through her pregnancy and beyond.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Eddie Murphy returns to the role he originated nearly four decades ago, teaming up with a new
partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) for a case that hits close to home in this Netflix sequel.

Hit Man

Glen Powell stars in Richard Linklater’s action comedy based on the real story of an undercover fake hit man. The film was acquired by Netflix after impressing audiences on the fall festival circuit.

The Idea of You

In this big-screen adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel of the same name, Anne Hathaway stars as a 40-year-old mother who gets swept off her feet in a whirlwind romance with a 24-year-old boy band member (Nicholas Galitzine from Bottoms and Red, White & Royal Blue) after meeting him while chaperoning her 16-year-old daughter at Coachella.

Problemista

Los Espookys creator Julio Torres delivers a triple threat as the director, writer and star of Problemista, a surrealist tale about Alejandro (played by Torres himself), an artist and aspiring toy designer from El Salvador, who needs his eccentric boss (Tilda Swinton) to co-sign his visa so he can stay in the U.S.

Rez Ball

Co-written by Reservation Dogs co-creator Sterlin Harjo, alongside director Sydney Freeland, this Netflix underdog sports film follows a Native American high school basketball team in New Mexico.

Shirley

Regina King plays Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president, in this Netflix biopic from John Ridley.

Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story

Jerry Seinfeld directs and stars in this ‘60s-set Netflix origin story for the iconic toaster pastry. He’s joined by Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, and Hugh Grant, among others.

source https://time.com/6549005/most-anticipated-movies-2024/

After My Parents Died, I Lost the Christmas Spirit. Now It’s Slowly Coming Back

My mother shopped for Christmas gifts all year long. By the time I was 8 or 9, I’d given up on the quaint idea of writing a wish list. “I’ve already bought all your presents,” she would inform me by the first of December, in a tone I can only describe as smug. “I’ve had them for weeks now.” She had a knack for finding things I never would have asked for but ended up treasuring: an album whose adhesive pages she’d filled with sheets of colorful stickers; a pale blue vintage perfume bottle; a small wooden box hand-carved with a moon and stars; an old green electric typewriter on which I composed several unfinished mystery novels. Many of my favorite gifts from her, I now know, were thrift or antique-shop finds; the little heart necklace I loved and wore for years came from a pawn shop. Money was tight and she was good at hunting for bargains, but she also couldn’t see the point of giving someone a present unless it was both a quirky surprise and “just the right thing.”

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Her delight in gift-giving was matched in every other holiday activity she undertook. She oversaw our Christmas decorations, from the tree we cut and hauled home from the woods to the Nativity creche whose figurines we arranged just so, and painted our living-room windows in wintry scenes. She wrapped presents with care, showing me how to curl ribbon and create special bows. Though she never much enjoyed cooking, she reveled in holiday baking: buttery spritz cookies dusted with sprinkles, peanut-butter buckeyes, her favorite gingerbread, and her mother’s strudel. Her Christmas spirit was infectious, or maybe just unavoidable—she signed me up to go caroling every year (she herself was tone-deaf) and my father to dress up as St. Nick and hand out candy canes to kids at their church. She was also the reason our holiday celebrations lasted a full month, starting with chocolate left in my shoes on St. Nicholas Day (December 6) and ending with a final “bonus gift” on Epiphany, or the Three Kings Day (January 6). I loved this tradition most of all—as my mother said, it was “a second shot at Christmas.” Even then, she was reluctant to see the season end, and often had to be persuaded to take down our tree in mid- to late January.

Read More: Why We Say ‘Merry Christmas.’ The Surprising Origins of 5 Christmas Traditions

My dad died on Epiphany in 2018. By Christmas that year, my mom had been diagnosed with cancer. She was sick for that holiday, and the one after, but of course she still felt like celebrating, determined to savor every possible moment of happiness with her grandchildren.

The long pandemic winter of 2020 brought my first Christmas without both of my parents. I participated in my family’s holiday rituals, hoping more than believing that the predictable delights would offer a kind of respite from my grief, but I was still sad all the time and felt like I was only going through the motions for the sake of my kids. I was constantly being ambushed by little things I hadn’t known would hurt, like not getting a box of treats from my mother on St. Nicholas Day—long after I’d left home, she’d continued to send me chocolate every December 6—or coming across things I would have wanted to give her if she were alive. After isolating and testing, we were lucky to get to spend a couple of days with my husband’s family, but all I could think about was the fact that my parents would miss this and every future holiday, milestone, and celebration.

Hardest of all, to my surprise, was being bombarded with recollections of Christmases past, reminders of time my parents and I would never get back. Sometimes I tried to share these memories with others, but in that haze of heavy grief, it was often impossible to summon and describe them. As the sole surviving member of the family I’d grown up in, I wasn’t able to fully convey what the holidays were like when I was young, or precisely how my mother looked and sounded decades before her grandchildren knew her, or what the little house I grew up in—a house they never saw—looked like all decked out for Christmas. Surrounded by people I loved, I felt unexpectedly and unbearably lonely, realizing that I truly was the only person left who could recall these and a thousand other things.

Read More: How ‘All I Want for Christmas’ Still Dominates the Holiday Charts

Christmas the following year felt much the same, and I worried that holidays without my parents would always bring these feelings of isolation and anguish. But last year, as I spoke to my kids about my mother’s abundant love for our Christmas festivities, and how excited she always was watching me open the presents she’d acquired over the last year, I felt real warmth, the urge to smile, alongside the expected wave of pain.

I’m not sure what’s changed. It’s not that the grief is gone, or even significantly lessened—I am aware of it every day. There are still times when “celebration” is a task I must dutifully work at, not something I feel in my heart. But I also know that carrying certain memories alone doesn’t mean that I am alone, and I’ve come to appreciate the ones that surge on holidays and birthdays and important anniversaries, letting them keep me company even when they bring sadness.

Since last Christmas, I’ve given myself permission to purchase small presents with my mother in mind. Not every time, but sometimes, when I see something I know she would have loved, I let myself buy it instead of just feeling a pang and wishing I could. I keep some of these items and give others as gifts, like the small opal ring my daughter now wears. I’ve also started incorporating some of my mom’s favorite traditions as a way of remembering her: my kids got treats on St. Nicholas Day, and I’ll set aside a single present each for them to unwrap on Epiphany. Though there’s still no one else who remembers what our Christmases were like when I was a child, I can tell my daughters what my mom used to do for me, sharing her irrepressible holiday spirit.

My parents feel closer this time of year because I associate it so strongly with them, and that’s something that now makes me thankful rather than feel empty and battered. It can be a complicated and bittersweet season, as many who face the holidays after losing a loved one can attest. But now, three years after losing my mom, I think I’ve gotten better at living with joy and grief at once, no longer expecting one to rise up and conquer the other. After all, when my mother and father were alive, the burdens they carried didn’t disappear just because it was Christmas. There were many years when someone was sick or out of work, angry or afraid; we still had our losses and our disappointments, reasons to mourn as well as celebrate. The holidays were never a perfect idyll for us, just a time when we chose to be happy together—all the more precious, perhaps, in years when our happiness was hard-won.

source https://time.com/6514101/holidays-grief-christmas-without-parents/

Einstein’s Complicated Relationship to Judaism

Albert Einstein’s father, Hermann, was proud that Jewish rituals were not practiced in his home, viewing them as outdated, the remnants of “ancient superstition.” In Einstein’s family, just one uncle attended synagogue, and he only did so because, as he used to say, “You never know.” Yet, in 1888, when he was nine, Einstein suddenly developed a fervent Jewish faith. Of his own accord, he strictly adhered to dogma, obeying the strictures of the Sabbath and kosher dietary laws. He even composed his own hymns, which he sang on his way home from school. Meanwhile, his family carried on with their secular lives.

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He referred to this phase of his life as a “religious paradise,” but it ended as suddenly as it had arrived. After three years, at the age of 12, he lost all interest in religion, and at the crucial moment, he refused to go ahead with his bar mitzvah and make a formal commitment to Judaism. From that moment, for the next 20 years, Einstein would deliberately distance himself from his Jewish background, claiming no religion on his official forms. In 1910, he was willing to designate himself as “Mosaic” as part of his appointment to the University of Prague, but only because to have admitted to being irreligious would have disqualified him from the job.

It was only after his arrival in Berlin in 1914 that Einstein steadily became more accepting, more pleased even, with the idea of belonging to a people. This reconfiguration of his heritage was, in large part, shaped by the many Jews he knew in the city who had tried to assimilate into German culture. Most Jews in Germany preferred this approach, which sought to “overcome anti-Semitism by dropping nearly everything Jewish,” as Einstein put it. He considered this attempt to blend in—“pussyfooting,” he called it—servile and idiotic, and was happy to say so to people’s faces.

Assimilation was more common in Western than in Eastern Europe, and Einstein especially disliked the way that in Germany many assimilated Jews viewed themselves as more refined than the mostly unassimilated Jews from countries such as Russia or Poland, and therefore superior. “It was only when, at the age of 35, I got to Berlin that I understood the Jewish community of destiny, and that I felt a duty to oppose, as far as I could, the undignified demeanor of my Jewish colleagues,” Einstein explained later in a letter to the writer Joseph Kastein.

He did not rediscover the faith that he had once held so strongly as a child. Judaism, as Einstein now conceived it, was not a question of religion. To use a metaphor he employed: a snail may be a creature that occupies a snail shell, but this does not serve as a definition; were the snail to rid itself of its shell, it would still be a snail. He conceived of Judaism, he once wrote, as a “community of tradition.” His solidarity with the Jewish people was, in his words, a solidarity with his “tribal companions” rather than religious fellows.

Read More: The Day Albert Einstein Died: A Photographer’s Story

In early 1919, it was to Zionism that Einstein turned as his way of embracing his “tribe.” Persuaded in part by the recruitment efforts of the Zionist leader Kurt Blumenfeld, Einstein overcame his instinctive objections to the nationalistic element inherent in the movement—that is, the creation of a Jewish state—and was persuaded that a Jewish home in Palestine would provide Jews with an inner security and freedom they had not yet known.

Walking home with Blumenfeld after one of the latter’s lectures, he declared, “I am against nationalism, but for the Zionist cause. The reason has become clear for me today. If a person has two arms and constantly says, ‘I have a right arm,’ then he is a chauvinist. If a person however lacks a right arm, then he must do everything to substitute for that missing limb.”

Once he had given his support, he never withdrew it. Despite not officially joining any Zionist organization, he often lent his weight in support of the movement’s goals, especially the establishment of a Jewish university in Palestine. A Jewish homeland, he believed, would provide “a center of culture for all Jews, a refuge for the most grievously oppressed, a field of action for the best among us, a unifying ideal, and a means of attaining inward health for the Jews of the whole world.”

Just as Einstein was committing to this newfound sense of Judaism and to aiding Jews in whatever way he could, so Germany was becoming more openly antisemitic. Since the First World War, in response to crushing reparations imposed by the Allies, a soothing, insidious myth had been propagated in the right-wing press: defeat had come as a result of betrayal at home. The army had been undermined by pacifist, internationalist, and anti-military sentiments on the home front: the civilian population and its leaders had denied it support at a vital moment in the war. This narrative very soon transformed into something simpler, and the blame for the country’s humiliation was placed almost entirely on the country’s Jews.

This was enough in itself to encourage Einstein to embrace and defend his Jewish feeling. His first public stand against antisemitism came in the summer of 1920, in the form of a personal defense. On August 24, a right-wing nationalistic organization, the Working Party of German Scientists for the Preservation of a Pure Science, held a rally at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the purpose of which was to attack the legitimacy of the theory of relativity and the character of its creator. Speaking first was Paul Weyland, an engineer who had written several politically minded articles vilifying relativity. He had latched on to the fact that the public, and some scientists, were concerned by the theory’s abstract rather than experimental basis, and the way it threatened much “traditional” science with what he saw as its “Jewish nature.” Relativity, Weyland declared at the rally, was spurious, a con for publicity, and on top of all that, it was plagiarized. The next speaker was the experimental physicist Ernst Gehrcke, who said effectively the same thing as Weyland, but in scientific language.

Halfway through his speech, a whisper rolled around the hall—“Einstein,” the listeners were saying. “Einstein, Einstein.” Albert was sitting in one of the boxes for all to see, there to watch the show and mock it in the open. Although he was truthfully enraged by his detractors and their blatant prejudice—and would respond to the meeting a few days later with an article attacking them and refuting their arguments—for now Einstein was all smiles and calm. Along with his friend Walther Nernst, he punctuated the proceedings with loud rounds of laughter and applause. When all was finished, he pronounced the meeting “most amusing.”

Such public stands as this, of course, increased the hatred that the German Right had for Einstein. Over the next decade, Einstein repeatedly stood up against the slow turn to authoritarianism. During the run-up to the Reichstag elections of 1932—the results of which made the Nazis the largest party in the government—Einstein co-wrote a manifesto warning that the country was in danger of becoming a fascist society. His wife Elsa implored him not to sign any more political appeals. “If I were as you want to have me,” he replied, “then I just wouldn’t be Albert Einstein.” Eager to humiliate the famous, Jewish scientist, after they had come to power, the Nazis formally stripped Einstein of his German citizenship in April 1934—at which time he was working at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Read More: The Real Lesson of the Racial Slurs in Albert Einstein’s Private Travel Diaries

Shortly before this occurred, the United States Congress introduced a joint resolution to naturalize him. Their reasons for doing so, as set out in the resolution, were that Einstein was accepted as a “savant and genius,” that he was an esteemed humanitarian, that he had publicly professed his love of the US and its Constitution, and that, above all, America was known throughout the world as a “haven of liberty and true civilization.” Einstein declined the offer. In fact, he was saddened and embarrassed by it. He only wished to be treated like any other new immigrant to the U.S., without honors and benefits. So when Albert decided to make Princeton his permanent home, he set about applying for American citizenship along the normal routes. As Einstein was still a Swiss citizen, it was not a lawful necessity for him to do this, but it was something he wanted to do.

The immigration visa Einstein needed could only be filed from a U.S. embassy, the nearest of which happened to be in Bermuda. Therefore, in May 1935, he and his family sailed to the island for a few days, in what was to be his last trip outside the U.S. While there, Einstein didn’t do a brilliant job at filling out his forms. In his Declaration of Intention he managed to get both the month and year of his and Elsa’s wedding completely wrong. He made mistakes regarding where and when she was born and was also wrong about both of his sons’ birthdays. His application was processed despite these errors, and five years later he took his citizenship test in Trenton, New Jersey.

As part of this process, he agreed to be interviewed after his exam for the immigration service’s radio program I Am an American. In the course of this, he argued that, to secure a future without wars, all nations, including America, would have to surrender part of their sovereignty to a global organization that would have complete control of all of its members’ military power.

Along with 88 others, he was sworn in on October 1, 1940. To the reporters covering the event, he praised his new country. America, he said, would prove that democracy is not just a system of government, but “a way of life tied to a great tradition, the tradition of moral strength.” Einstein was to live for 15 years as an American, and although he never lost hope for his adoptive country, he became increasingly concerned by the rise of wild anti-Communist feeling after the end of the Second World War. He saw, especially in Joseph McCarthy’s maniacal security investigations, something recognizable to him. “The German calamity of years ago repeats itself,” he lamented in 1951. “People acquiesce without resistance and align themselves with the forces of evil.”

Einstein’s commitment to the Zionist cause did not waver in his later years. Indeed, in the very days before his death in 1955, Einstein was writing a speech for radio to celebrate Israeli Independence Day. In discussing its contents with the American Israeli Ambassador, he explained that he was worried about how the Jews were struggling to live with the Arabs. He believed that how they were to treat Arabs would prove to be the true moral test of the Jewish people. He worked on it as he lay in hospital, dying—but he was never to deliver it. A draft lay by the side of his deathbed. “I speak to you today,” it began, “not as an American citizen and not as a Jew, but as a human being …”

source https://time.com/6549001/einstein-judaism-zionism-essay/

TIME Appoints Kelly Conniff as Deputy Editor

TIME Editor in Chief Sam Jacobs sent the following note to staff on Tuesday:

Dear all,

I am delighted to announce that Kelly Conniff has been promoted to Deputy Editor. In this role, Kelly will be my partner in making the day-to-day and strategic decisions for our journalism and lead editorial relationships across the business. Working with me, Kelly will lead the staff to ensure we deliver high impact journalism, find new readers and keep loyal ones, and prioritize to achieve results for our newsroom.

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Across her 11 years at TIME, Kelly has made an indelible impact on our journalism and our people. Since joining TIME in 2012, Kelly has held a variety of senior editorial positions, including overseeing our audience and culture teams, supporting decision-making for the print magazine, and guiding our digital efforts. Her vision and skill in leading these teams over the past decade have helped grow TIME’s robust presence across social media, which reaches more than 50 million people, and our newsletters, which inform 2.5 million subscribers. In addition, Kelly has been a key partner to our TIME Studios efforts in film, television, and audience.

From leading cover stories on Elliot Page, Game of Thrones, Barbie and Steven Spielberg, and launching our historic “Women of the Year” platform, Kelly’s editing efforts and exclusives over the years are many. Kelly’s work has been recognized for its excellence across the industry. This year, she added the responsibility of editing our “Person of the Year” issue and cover story, achieving one of the most impressive editorial efforts in recent memory.

Kelly is relentless in her drive to increase our impact and extend our reach. I could not be more lucky to have worked with her every day for the last decade. She is an extraordinary partner. I know TIME will continue to benefit and grow through her leadership.

Sam

source https://time.com/6549027/time-appoints-kelly-conniff-as-deputy-editor/

The Surprising Origins of Popular Christmas Songs

Christmas may be on Dec. 25, but Christmas music begins playing at stores and restaurants well before to spark holiday cheer.

But several of the songs that are supposed to lift people’s spirits actually have some depressing origins stories. Others were made in homage to family members or inspired by poems or written to plead for peace.

“I was surprised that some songs were born in a time of crisis or war,” says Michael P. Foley, a professor at Baylor University who researched the origins of popular Christmas songs for his book Why We Kiss under the Mistletoe: Christmas Traditions Explained.

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Below, TIME rounded up the most surprising back stories behind the most famous Christmas carols. 

“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer“

In 1939, Chicago copywriter Robert L. May created the character of Rudolph for the annual Christmas coloring booklet for the retail and catalog company Montgomery Ward.

May created a reindeer because his toddler daughter was crazy about the deer at Lincoln Park Zoo. Depicting Rudolph as an outsider was inspired by May’s own experience being picked on while growing up for being shy and small. May got the idea for Rudolph’s glowing nose from gazing out his office window and thinking about how Santa would be able to navigate through the fog over Lake Michigan. In 2018, his daughter Barbara May Lewis told TIME that her contribution to the song was suggesting that her father describe Santa’s stomach as a “tummy” in the line: “This fog, [Santa] complained, will be hard to get through / He shook his round head. (And his tummy shook too.)”

Rudolph’s story didn’t really become world-famous for another decade, until May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks wrote the musical version that Gene Autry sang and the song topped the charts in 1949.

“Do You Hear What I Hear?“

Husband-and-wife songwriters Nöel Regney and Gloria Shayne penned the song in Oct. 1962 as a plea for peace amid the Cuban missile crisis—literally writing, “Pray for peace, people everywhere!”

“With the prospect of unspeakable war, my father was walking around New York and saw some babies and was very moved—and wrote the lyrics for ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?,’” Gabrielle Regney, the duo’s daughter, told GBH News in 2019. She says that when her parents wrote, “A star, a star, dancing in the sky,” they were referencing nuclear bombs.

“Silent Night“

The Christmas carol can be traced back to Austria. It was written by Joseph Mohr, a priest at the Catholic St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf and first performed in 1818. 

As Foley says, Mohr was “an Austrian priest who was very eager to celebrate a high mass for his congregation on Christmas, but the organ broke and couldn’t be repaired in time. So as consolation, he dusted off an old poem that he had written to commemorate the end of the Napoleonic Wars and then asked a friend to set it to music. And the result was ‘Silent Night.’”

“Little Drummer Boy“

The American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis wrote the song in 1941. She originally called it “Carol of the Drum” and wrote it under the pseudonym C.R.W. Robertson.

“[One day], when she was trying to take a nap, she was obsessed with this song that came into her head and it was supposed to have been inspired by a French song, ‘Patapan,’” According to Claire Fontijn, a musicologist at Wellesley College, the idea for the song came to Davis when she was trying to take a nap, and stop thinking about the French song “Patapan” and it kept playing in her head like “pa-rum-pum-pum.” That’s how those lyrics ended up in “Little Drummer Boy.”

The version performed by Jack Halloran Singers in 1957 turned the song into a global hit.

“Carol of the Bells“

The song is an English version of a Ukrainian folk chant by Mykola Leontovych in 1916 called Shchedryk (“Bountiful Evening”), about a sparrow flying around a home. It was traditionally sung on Jan. 13, the beginning of the new year in the Julian calendar. 

According to Foley’s book, Peter J. Wilhousky, the arranger for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, heard the Ukrainian national chorus perform the song at Carnegie Hall around 1922. At the time, the group was traveling as part of a cultural diplomacy mission to promote Ukrainian independence efforts. Wilhousky decided to write new, Christmas-themed lyrics for it, which he copyrighted in 1936.

Exactly a century after that Carnegie Hall performance, the theater staged another performance of it during the Russia-Ukraine war and proceeds from the concert went to Ukraine’s defense efforts.

“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear“

Similar to “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” this carol was inspired by wartime anxieties. Unitarian minister Edmund Sears at a Wayland, Mass. church wrote it in 1849. 

According to the Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography, Sears composed the lines while he was depressed and thinking of revolution in Europe and the Mexican-American war.

“The Christmas Song“

Musician Mel Tormé and his writing partner Robert Wells composed this song in July 1945 at Wells’ California home in an effort to beat the heat. 

Tormé came across a spiral notepad with snippets of lyrics: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire / Jack Frost nipping at your nose / Yuletide carols being sung by a choir / And folks dressed up like Eskimos.” As Tormés’s son recapped what Wells said to his father in a 2017 NPR interview, “You know, Mel, I have tried everything to cool down. I’ve been in my pool. I had a cold drink. I’ve taken a cold shower. I’m nothing but hot. And I thought that maybe, you know, if I could just write down a few lines of wintery…verse I could psychologically get an edge over this heat.” About 45 minutes later, Tormé had the music written.

The duo presented the finished product to Nat King Cole, who made it famous, recording it three times throughout his career.

“What Child Is This?“

It was written in 1865 by an insurance company manager named William Chatterton Dix based in Glasgow, Scotland. According to Foley’s book, he got seriously sick in his 20s, and when he recovered, he was a born-again Christian. He penned several hymns, but “What Child Is This?” (originally entitled “The Manger Throne”) is the one that came to be sung around the world after it was set to the tune of “Greensleeves” in 1871.

source https://time.com/6548868/christmas-songs-origins/