“Style and function. Personally I choose function over style, but the good thing is you can find shoes with both.”

“The ultimate skate shoe right now? Trepasso Mids from Converse [shown here] and Koston 1 Nike SB.”

1.) “Padded shoes are safer for your foot, but you sacrifice board feeling. If you get a shoe with a thinner tongue you might hurt your feet a bit more, but you’ll have more control.”
2.) “The best material is suede. It’s more grippy. I like the style of leather, but you have to wear them down before they start to get grippy.”
3.) “There should be no movement at the heel, and a tight fit on the toe so you can feel your board better.”

READ MORE:
Must-have Longboard Gear

SKATE HERE: Spots for Cruising and Tricks

SHOP HERE: Urface

Ahead of his visit (Sep 5-11 at Spice Market) for the World Gourmet Festival at the Four Seasons Bangkok, Hari Nayak, chef of Orissa in Mumbai, India, and culinary consultant in the US, tells us about how he manages to be authentically Indian and creative at the same time, and about the logistics of cooking in a new kitchen.

What are your plans for the WGF?
I am coming with Chef Kiran, a longtime friend and business partner and the team at Four Seasons will be assisting us. I will be making an authentic Indian menu with a global influence, using seafood, local produce and lots of Thai chilies and coconut. I love the flavor they bring into the dishes, and there are a lot of similarities in Thai and Indian cooking.

What’s an ingredient that’s gotten you excited lately?
I often shop at the Union Square Market in NYC and I always find something new and interesting. I recently found husk cherries. They were gathered in a crate by the hundreds and looked like delicately wrapped bonbons, more like berries than cherries once you peel back their paper-thin husk. They’re lightweight, almost weightless. They taste like pineapple and orange.

What’s your creative process?
I love to cook Indian food but I also like to incorporate my experience and knowledge about other cuisines (as I have lived in the West for more than 15 years) into whatever I create. During this process a new style of cooking was created. I recreate Indian recipes with non-Indian ingredients and my favorite Western with Indian ingredients and flavors. I love to explore the fusion of tastes and flavors that occur between different cultural and ethnic cuisines.

Why is your restaurant called Orissa? It is a boutique restaurant and a wine bar concept. Orissa is a state in India which is famous for its ancient tribal arts, beautiful paintings and handicrafts. This was the influence for the design of the restaurant, and the handicrafts there are for sale. The cuisine is modern and contemporary Indian. I have recreated Indian cuisine with local seasonal ingredients with Western influences and a little bit of my own touch which makes it my cuisine.

What’s your beauty regime like?
It’s rather simple. Cleansing is my priority, so I only use an organic honey face wash/cleanser, double biphase eye makeup remover and then moisturize, moisturize, moisturize with organic, paraben-free products only, for example Sukin or Evolu.

A foolproof style tip?
Ooooh, trick question. Fashion is never foolproof but if you want to know a quick fix for feeling or looking fabulous, it’s got to be a well-fitted dress (any cut that flatters your body shape), paint your nails an outrageous seasonal color and slab on the mascara. Finish strong with an outstanding pair of comfy heels.

Who are your influences in life?
Style influences include Sienna Miller and Sarah Jessica Parker. Life influences include the Dalai Lama, my mum and Malcolm Gladwell.

How do you keep fit? 
I love Vinyasa yoga and hiking. I love long beach and riverside walks too, especially with my shadow, Gizmo, my beloved schnauzer.

What’s your mantra?
Love all, trust a few and do wrong to none.

Tips for wannabe catwalk queens.
Treat that stage like you own it. Claim your stage presence and move with grace.

My first impression of Singapore is… that it’s a very functional city, and I respect that.

The skyline… contributes to a city’s identity. In Singapore I feel that the way it is lit is all about power.

Light is… my way of painting, my medium. The sky is my canvas.
My work is… always going to be a unique response to my surroundings.

I have been compared to… James Turrell and Christo. I think we have an almost accidental common theme, where people get to re-experience and reconnect with a building that they normally pass by on a daily basis.

At the moment I am… focusing on smaller design pieces. The large scale installations are only ever temporary, and I want to create something lasting that people can own.

Check out a selected collection of works by Thierry Dreyfus at Avant Première.

How does it feel to be a Portuguese house hero?
Not sure about the hero, but I feel very proud to say I’m Portuguese while touring around the globe.

Is there much competition?
One of my favorite DJs in the world is Portuguese. During the beginning of the 00s, Portugal was considered by loads of top DJs as one of the best emerging scenes and local talent, but somehow we lost the hype about two or three years ago. Despite this, the competition in Portugal is quite fierce.

Least favorite record?
I don’t waste my time trying to find that, but if you ask the opposite I might have an answer.

What’s the weirdest thing a fan has asked you?
To give her a baby.

Preferred BPM?
127, almost the heart pace.

Vinyl, CDs or digital?
Digital to move forward and vinyl if I want to look stylish.

Does being good looking make DJing easier?
Sales-wise maybe, music-wise never!

Get your dose of quality house cuts from Carlos Fauvrelle on Velvet Underground.

Do you ever get irritating requests from the dancefloor?
Every girl that starts by saying “Hello there, tonight is my friend´s birthday...” means trouble. I´ve had a couple of nice requests a few times though involving the likes of Dennis Parker, Shari Vari, Paul Simon and Andreas Vollenweider.

How long have you spent cultivating your moustache?
These days it tends to get lost in it’s neighbour, namely the beard. It’s not that I´m purposely going for this whole unshaven “just got out of bed” look, the fact is that very often I have actually just gotten out of bed. I sleep a lot!

Your music has been defined as “space disco.” Is it an appropriate soundtrack for astronauts?
I very much doubt it. If I was an astronaut, I´d probably leave all my cosmic J.P. Massiera records at home and bring some Neil Young and perhaps a few Beethoven recordings.

Did studying astrophysics influence your DJing technique?
I think more the other way around; my escalating DJ schedule influenced my studies in a bad way! Every Monday I cut classes, which is the main day for the astrophysics part of my studies. Fortunately, I was majoring in general physics and had only a couple of astrophysics modules in the mix.

Will disco ever die?
Yes, it should.

Catch Todd Terje at DISCO:VERY at Zouk

I was quite the entrepreneur as a kid as I would charge my classmates for drawing their favorite characters in their textbooks, which eventually flourished into a fake tattoo service.

Unfortunately, I had to close shop after several parents complained about their kids going home with tribal dragons on their arms.

My parents’ separation probably had the biggest impact on my childhood. While it may have seemed like the end of the world at the time, it actually helped me see things more realistically.

I learnt not to take the blessings I have for granted and also to not fall apart when things are down in the gutter.

Imagination is a place only the lucky can access—a place where children enter for free, hence why their imaginations are boundless and innocent. I wish I could have that free pass back so I could overcome writer’s block.

My grandfather’s life story was pretty interesting as he was a detective in early Singapore when the legal system wasn’t as established as it is today. I’d love to write and draw a comic based on his adventures.

I can’t remember being given any bad advice. I believe everyone has their own prerogative and what works for you might not work for someone else. I believe in doing your own research and forming your own opinions or solutions.

The most under-rated value in society is resilience. I feel that a true measure of a person is not how successful they are but how they handle situations when things are falling apart.

I am most inspired by the decisions people make in dire situations.

The heroic Harriet Tubman ranks pretty high up on my list. Her decision to risk her life repeatedly for the cause she believed in is extremely inspiring and really makes you realize how bloody lucky we are.

It was 2010 when Marvel was looking for talent in the region at the Singapore Toy, Games and Comic Convention. I basically dropped everything, polished my portfolio and submitted it on the first day of the event. I guess it’s a good example of being ready when the opportunity comes.

To have work recognized by some of the best in the industry is really a dream come true.

I am definitely aware of the challenges that are ahead and I feel it is the right time in my life to face them head on.

Ignorance makes me angry. In this day and age where information is so easily obtained, it’s almost a crime to be oblivious to what’s going on in the world and its history.

Peace is taken for granted by so many, which is really sad.

Being a freelance illustrator, you do have a lot of alone time as you are essentially doing everything yourself.

I used to have this thing where I’d hop on a random bus and see where it took me. I enjoyed observing the different sceneries and people along the journey.

Somehow the bus always ended up in a god-forsaken place really far from town.

How is Flying Cubes the next step from your previous exhibitions?
I’ve been passionate about the human physique, as you can probably see from my work over the past 20 years. I use the human body to express myself, through a variety of media like photography, painting, collage and sculpture. All my exhibitions are related and inspire the next one. For example, when I did an exhibition of sculpture, I was struck by how we aren’t supposed to touch the artwork. This led to my next exhibition Noon Nom, comprised of breast-shaped pillows, in 2002. My later exhibitions are very interested in how the viewer can interact with the work. This Body Borders exhibition is about that as well.

So if this exhibition is about the human body, why does it involve cubes?
I got this inspiration a couple years ago when I was in Japan and discovered an origami shape that was a cube with wings. The cube itself is a very solid shape but when we add these wings to it, the cube becomes a body to me. It really captured my imagination.

Then what happened?
From that point on, I’d been thinking about what to do with cubes. When an art event in Chiang Mai invited me to show my work, I decided to make a scarecrow comprised of flying cubes hanging on bamboo sticks. And now, the first part of Body Borders will be shown at H gallery. The cubes are made from rattan, and the final product is somewhere between art and furniture. The audience is allowed to sit on them and experience through touch.

It’s a trio of exhibitions, right? What about the other two?
I made this shape in paper, in small sizes, and hung it around The Art Center Hall; this will be mixed with breast clouds made from glass. This extends the meaning—the body as symmetric shapes that can perfectly match with abstract forms. Then I came up with the idea of Anything Can Break. There will be sound sensors on the floor and when the audience is walking about, the sensor will respond by creating a sound each time. The final exhibition is paintings, which will be shown at 100Tonson Gallery.

Do you plan to have other special programs related to this exhibition?
Blind children from Baan Rachavithee are invited to visit the exhibitions. Even though they can’t see them, they can still interact with them through other senses.

How did this project start? Is it for Mother’s Day?
I participated in the Play Reading Project last year where the theme had to do with women. Since I’d read Amy Tan’s novel before, I picked a scene to present at the event. The feedback was really good and I felt that the novel had some resonance, which inspired me to do a stage play. Actually, Mother’s Day doesn’t have much to do with it, but since the story is about mother-daughter relationships, I chose to launch the play at this time.

What sorts of things inspire your plays normally?
At New Theatre Society, we love to read a lot of foreign literature, and that’s how we pick the next play. We select an existing plot because it’s guaranteed to be good, and then we have some fun creating a Thai adaptation—not just translating it into Thai but adding elements that reflect our culture.

How did this script evolve from the original novel? Was it difficult, as the book was written in the 80s?
Things have changed a lot since the 80s, but the relationship between mothers and daughters is a classic issue that’s timeless. So that’s the question I dealt with in adapting this play and adding modern elements to set it in present day. The cast is also different; I created new characters necessary to the plot and cut others.

So what do you think are the factors impacting mother-daughter relationships?
There are a lot of factors, actually. Technology is one thing. As our world moves faster, people have less and less patience. We focus only on the final solution without being aware of the things along the way. Sensitivity is something we’ve forgotten about. This affects not only the relationship between mothers and daughters, but other relationships as well.

What do you hope the audience will take away from the production?
Of course, even after the play, mother-daughter problems will continue. That’s classic and inevitable. But I hope, at the very least, the audience will want to compromise and of listen to each other better.

How did you start this shop?
My mom opened this shop more than 30 years ago. She sold garlands, before switching to flowers. She learned how to make garlands alone at home. I quit school after grade 6 and came to help her and let my brother go to school instead. This shop still uses her name as a brand, Pa Mol, even though she’s now passed away.

'How has your shop grown?
We had a smaller shop on the side of Villa, before moving outfront and expanding our shop on the sidewalk. This is a good spot for foreigners. They remember us as the flower shop in front of Villa Market. My younger brother, Pok, has studied floristry and is now a flower arrangement teacher. We also have our own flower farm in Pakchong, Nakhon Ratchasima, where we grow flowers like hydrangeas. We order flowers from China and Malaysia, too.

Which flowers are the hardest to take care of?
Lillies and tulips are most difficult because we don’t have a fridge. We have to take risks when we buy them.

What kind of customers buy bouquets?
There are both Thai and foreigners. We don’t try to make much profit like those florists with glass cabinets. Our bouquets starts from B300, depending on the flowers and the vases. Sometimes people bring their own vases and give us a price. We can do everything.

What’s the most expensive bouquet you’ve ever done?
I don’t remember exactly because there too many of them. We did flowers for Princess Sirindhorn’s gala and an opera gala at Siriraj Hospital to honor HM the King. My brother also went to Cambodia to do flower arrangements for the wedding of Hun Sen’s daughter. They contacted my brother and he went with his friend, who is a photographer.

What’s the daily routine here?
We are open 24 hours. I start around 8am and leave when I’m done working; if I don’t have a lot to do then I leave early. I do everything like arranging flowers and taking orders from customers. If it’s the rainy season then we struggle a bit since we’re on the sidewalk. Our sales are good on the weekends because people are here, shopping at Villa.

How did you learn to choose and arrange flowers?
I learned from my experience with customers who are Chinese, Indian, Thai or farang. I now ask them what event they’re going to and what color they want, then I give suggestions.

What are your rules of doing business?
Be true to your customers. If there are bad flowers, we will tell them upfront that they won’t last long. Like for hydrangeas, I tell them that they only last two days. But if customers have already bought the flowers and the flowers aren’t good then we let them exchange or return their money. Interview by Monruedee Jansuttipan and Sasinipa Wasantapruek