What’s Next
Richard Laermer
In order to stay ahead of the curve, you need to know what’s coming around the bend. RAZOR does the digging for you to see “What’s Next” in technology, fitness, food and destinations.
TECHNOLOGY
Next Creepy Special Effect
The new frontier in animation is Performance Capture, which can be seen this month in the Robert Zemeckis-directed The Polar Express starring Tom Hanks. The children’s book classic is being created in a completely new way; all of the actors film their scenes with sensors covering their bodies to record gestures and facial expressions (instead of just their voices) which are then transferred onto a computer. The results are what could be the most visually life-like animation ever created.
Next (Un)Welcome Interruption
The internet is still kicking, due in part to a lesson learned from its older and wiser brother, TV. Ads are reborn as interstitials. We had a glimpse with the Jerry Seinfeld/Superman commercials on AmericanExpress.com and those beloved BMW Films releases featuring Clive Owen, but that was just a tease. More companies, like AT&T Wireless and Sony Pictures are spending money to produce “movie” ads – personalized films shown with Windows Media or QuickTime (with product discount attached) that pop up as you browse.
Next Envy-Inducing Gadget
The future of cell phones is crucial. The mass handset purchaser will die a swift death and tiny, affordable PCs, replete with Skype (Internet phone software) and a slew of built-in devices (think PalmPilot-iPod-DVD/mp3-player-cell-phone-laptop in one). With high-speed wireless broadband, these gizmos will allow you to do anything… well almost anything.
Next Choose Your Own Adventure
America’s literary crowd are exposed to the new chapter-by-chapter PDA-style book ushered in by forward-thinking publishers. And since youth think of entertainment as communication (and vice versa) it arrives in the nick of time; as the Net Generation comes of age, so too will the consumption of so-called traditional media. It is now about control. People will share downloads of chapters (of books!) in the same manner as mp3s. Many newspapers, including The New York Times and The New York Post have started by doling out one chapter daily free to subscribers with laudatory praise.
ART/ARCHITECTURE
Next Way To Kill Time
The collecting trend is homes. People take advantage of the real estate boom by buying homes, holding them and flipping them like a poker chip – then they walk away with heady cash. Days of stamps, coins and trains are gone for good.
Next Prozac
Art comes in the form of therapy. Simply put, art therapy is a way to get people to concentrate on pictures and sculptures in order to reroute the way their brain functions. Doctors think it can replace prescription usage in bingers and addictive types. Bad news for Betty Ford, good news for aspiring Picassos.
Next Neo-Renaissance
The resurgence of the downtown square will occur in large cities and suburban sprawls as communities rebuild areas that have plummeted in value, with non-chain stores taking the lead. The first to do so is northern Harlem in Manhattan. With chains like Starbucks going bust for not being “Harlem enough,” local businesses moved in to make their own mark with down-to-earth Harlem-owned shops and services. This new urban architecture will become an exciting new rapid growth technique throughout America.
DIET/FITNESS
Next Magic Pill
Forget mass dieting. Weight-loss tomes are kicked to the curb to make room for a more individualistic program. Welcome Genomic Profile Testing, a scientific approach to dieting based on the Human Genome Project and the presumption that genes determine our state of health and influence our responses to food. Draw blood, send it to the lab and presto, diets alterations and supplements specific to your genetic inheritance are recommended. The results are many: turn off cravings, prevent disease, improve energy, lose weight and feel better. And you thought Atkins was for life.
Next Cardio Fix
Turn your home gym into a room that you actually use. Fitness takes a tip from Survivor, combining group mentality and extreme locals. Go canyoning in Turkey, bear hunting in Alaska, dogsledding in Sweden, survival trekking in Costa Rica, drag racing in Florida, sea kayaking in Vancouver, cowboy school in Arizona… and the list goes on and on. Bond with buddies and get fit – just don’t expect a $1 million reward.
CITY/VACATION
Next “It” Town
WC Fields may have been wrong! The place to be is Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love is undergoing a “look at me” renaissance campaign partly ignited by Nicolas Cage’s adventure through the streets of Philadelphia in this month’s National Treasure. In January, the city will actually be set up, intelligently, for free high-speed wireless Internet access, all from light posts. Brand spanking new TV advertisements – and, again, banner ads on the Web – remind us all how crucial Philly is to our history.
Next Boomtown
The biggest urban explosion is Shanghai, China, a hub built to succeed. Everywhere the eye goes a new high rise or international headquarter is erected (including General Motors’ Asia-Pacific headquarters) as US-originated commerce pours into the once-thought “strange” city. New airline routes are making this the easiest place to get to in the Far East.
Next Escape Hatch
South Africa shines as a vacation paradise in 2005 because, finally, people realize how gorgeous the southern tip of that continent is. Capetown puts out a lot of press to remind us how much it’s done to upgrade the many hotels and resorts. The fact that Americans get a lot of Rand for the dollar helps.
The Twelve Apostles Hotel: www.12apostleshotel.com
Spa Cape Grace: www.capegrace.com
Next Lap of Luxury
In leisure, the best place is Baja, Mexico, with Los Cabos in the lead. (This is the town where Martha Stewart went after making that fateful airport call to her broker.) Where else can you go to see both the waves and desert?
Las Ventanas, www.lasventanas.com
FOOD/DRINK
Next Big Gulp:
Drinking wine is no longer a snob sport, but an average guy’s right. As younger imbibers embrace the simple side of vino, boutique wineries from California to Oregon cater to this new and eager audience by creating affordable vintages with lighthearted labels. Pricey imports are ignored in favor of domestic, often family-owned vineyards. Forget all about varietals, good years and body – all you need to know is what you like.
www.deerfieldranch.com
www.stevenotwinery.com
www.neibaum-coppola.com
Next Food for Thought:
Eating out is out, but cooking is in. Knowing how to souffle, flambe and saute is just as valuable to the ladies as changing the oil was 10 years ago. If you don’t know these terms yet, you will by attending one of the many emerging cooking schools. A popular social activity, recreational classes are held evenings and weekends. Pretty soon foie gras will be in your vocabulary and Grey Poupon will be more than a Wayne’s World joke.
www.newschoolofcooking.com
Next Place to be Seen:
Enter 49 Grove, what is about to become Manhattan’s hottest lounge. Opened in late October by “it guy” Aram Sabet (of the Hampton’s restaurant Pacific East), 49 Grove has already caught the valuable attention of trust-fund babies and high-profile personalities. Why? Because this four room mecca is designed to pamper, with on-site personal security, limos and bottle service at your beck and call – along with some of the city’s best food and European music.
www.49grove.com
Next Haute Cuisine:
The recently opened Cortez at the swanky Hotel Adagio in San Fransisco is already rated as one of the “66 Hottest New Restaurants in the World” by Conde Nast Traveler. Why? Because it is one of the newest ventures by famed restaurateur Pascal Rigo, the man responsible for a long line of the Bay Area’s best eateries, including Chez Nous, Le Petit Robert and O & Co. Table. Cortez, named after Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez, brings new meaning to tasting menus – following Rigo’s “small plate” concept, diners can try a bit of everything. The buzz on this new hotspot has not stopped yet, making reservations essential.
www.cortezrestaurant.com