Overcrowded Louvre Launches €270 Million Design Competition
After weeks of mounting tensions and a sudden staffstrikethat left thousands queued outside its gates, theMusée du Louvrehas launched an international architectural competition ahead of its much-needed restoration.
The Parisian powerhouse opened the competition on June 27 with aims to expand its storied space and ease its visitor congestion through a newly designed entrance and exhibition space for one of its prized centerpieces, the 'Mona Lisa.' Five finalists will be decided by a 21-person jury in October, with the overall winner announced early next year.
To prevent massive crowds at the museum's current access points, a new entrance will be planted on the museum's eastern facade, though Unlike I.M. Pei's iconic glass-and-steel pyramid, the museum is seeking proposals that will blend seamlessly with the facade's 17th-century classical colonnades.
Breathing room for 'Mona Lisa' is also on the table. Set beneath the Cour Courée courtyard, da Vinci's most famed piece will call a new, 33,000-square-foot, subterraneangalleryits home. The space will offer require a separate timed-entry access from the main galleries, in an effort to thin constant crowds that overwhelm the painting's current room.
The initiative follows growing concerns over the Louvre's aging infrastructure and its ability to manage its nearly 9 million annual visitors. According to an internal letter from director Laurence des Cars, leakd byLe Parisien, much of the building suffers from water leaks and unstable climate conditions, putting the collection at risk.
In January, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged plans for a five-year renovation plan, which he dubbed a 'New Renaissance' for the institution. With a projected cost of €400 million EUR ($417 million USD) for the overhaul,Le Monde, who first reported the €10 EUR ticket hike for non-European Union visitors, speculates that the funding for the expansion will be supplemented by the uptick.
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Los Angeles Times
11 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Meet Ty Myers, Gen Z blues guitarist turned TikTok country heartthrob
Among the half-dozen tattoos Ty Myers has accumulated in his 18 years on earth, 'probably the dumbest,' he says, is the armadillo he picked out from a set of ready-mades at a festival in Oklahoma. 'They had like 20 options they could do quick,' the singer and songwriter from Austin, Texas, says with a shrug. Myers has a plan to improve the tattoo, though, next time he's home in the city where his hero Willie Nelson famously found renewal in the early 1970s at the Armadillo World Headquarters. 'I'm gonna add a red bandanna and put Willie braids on it,' he says — a music nerd's reference to the fabled honky-tonk that shuttered nearly three decades before he was born. Myers, whose other tattoos include the name Leroy (after Jim Croce's 'Bad, Bad Leroy Brown') and the logo of Muscle Shoals, Alabama's FAME Studios, is a young person with vintage tastes. His 2025 debut album, 'The Select' — its title nods to the Parisian brasserie from Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises' — puts bluesy guitar riffs against low-slung soul-rock grooves, as in the twangy 'Let 'Em Talk' and the waltz-time 'Ends of the Earth,' which has been streamed more than 70 million times on Spotify and is slowly moving up the country radio chart. Yet the singer has built his growing audience the new-fashioned way. In 2023, not long after he started posting music online, his song 'Tie That Binds' went viral on TikTok; these days, the platform is filled with videos of teenage girls, many even younger than Myers, screaming along with him at concerts like the one he played this last weekend after a Royals game at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium. His latest single: a stately '70s-style ballad called 'Through a Screen' about falling in love with someone you've never met in the flesh. 'I knew yall would relate to this one,' he wrote on TikTok in one of the many, many videos that teased the song before its release last Friday. As a clean-cut heartthrob type, Myers stands out somewhat in the country scene, which has been dominated over the last few years by the burly, bearded likes of Luke Combs and Jelly Roll and, of course, by Morgan Wallen, whose lightly villainous bad-boy energy is as crucial to his popularity as his knack for a deviously catchy hook. In Myers' music, which he writes mostly himself, even the drinking songs feel pretty suave; he's always using his dreamy eyes to beam a gentlemanly sincerity. 'I don't think I've ever tried to be seen that way,' he says with a laugh over coffee at the Chateau Marmont during a recent swing through Los Angeles. 'Obviously, when I'm onstage doing the flirtatious stuff and it gets a reaction — that's all part of it. And I love clothes — style definitely plays into it too. But that's never been at the forefront of my mind.' Even so, one of the music industry veterans behind Myers acknowledges that he was 'seeking a gap in the marketplace' when he signed the singer to his label. 'Everything in country was feeling a little mature,' says Barry Weiss, who founded the company he calls simply Records after heading up the Jive and RCA labels in the late '90s and early 2000s. 'You're trying to hit the ball where they ain't. And I felt like there wasn't a male country artist who's really young and really appealing to young folks.' Why not? 'Generally speaking, the Nashville community is very purist,' Weiss says. 'The minute someone feels young, it means they don't have musical credibility, which is so not the case with Ty. I mean, he's basically John Mayer and Otis Redding in an 18-year-old's body.' That's perhaps an overstatement. But it's true that Myers backs up his fresh-faced good looks and his cutesy social media content with real chops. His guitar playing is casually assured, and his voice has a weary scrape beyond his years; as a songwriter, he knows how to punctuate a story with a burst of emotional detail, as in his song 'Help Ourselves,' where he and a duet partner, Harper O'Neill, play a couple stuck — if that's the word for it — in a toxic relationship. 'This ain't no goodbye / You'll come crawling back when you've had your fill,' Myers sings, bruised but still steady. 'I'll get a call in the night at half past 12 / Three months later, I should f— myself.' (Hey, he's a good guy, not a choirboy.) Myers grew up in Dripping Springs, Texas, as part of a musical family that includes a great-uncle who co-founded the band Lonestar and another great-uncle who plays keys for George Strait. By elementary school, he was known around town as a singer — 'I vividly remember my PE teacher making me get up and sing 'Check Yes or No' for the whole gymnasium,' he says of the old Strait hit — and at 11 or 12 he discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan on YouTube. 'It was 'Lenny' from 'Live at the El Mocambo,'' he says, referring to the blues-rock star's classic concert film. 'I was like, 'That's what I want to do.'' Playing guitar and writing songs became 'a borderline addiction,' as Myers puts it, that he squeezed between going to school and playing football and baseball, the latter of which he described as 'a way of life in Texas.' Yet a sports injury in his sophomore year — 'Blew my knee out and tore everything: ACL, MCL, meniscus, PLC' — took him off the field. Myers' mom made him a TikTok profile to help focus his attention on something else; his sister, he says, became 'the mastermind' of his online presence. The 'Tie That Binds' video blew up while the family was on vacation in Key West, Fla.; Myers recalls an instant deluge of queries from record labels and management companies, including Nashville's Starstruck Entertainment, the firm headed up by Narvel Blackstock, who was married to Reba McEntire from 1989 to 2015. 'My mom obviously grew up watching Lonestar on the CMAs and the ACMs, and she remembers every time Reba would win an award, they'd pan to her and Narvel right next to her and pop his name up on the screen,' Myers says. 'So they knew who he was.' (Blackstock's son Brandon, who worked with his father and had two children with his ex-wife, Kelly Clarkson, died this month of cancer at age 48.) Myers signed with Starstruck, whose other management clients include Blake Shelton and Carly Pearce, then spent about a year taking meetings with labels. 'I think we met with all of them,' Myers says. 'By the end, I was about done with meetings.' Weiss recalls flying to Austin to meet with the singer and his parents. 'The mom recognized my name because she saw me written up in the Britney Spears book,' says the exec, who helped shepherd Spears, NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys to stardom. 'That can cut both ways, but it turned out to be a huge positive, because she's a Britney fan.' Myers says he went with Weiss' company, which signed the singer in a joint deal with Columbia Records, in part because Weiss understands 'how to use youth in a way that propels you instead of it being like, 'Well, he's really young …'' Though Weiss predicts that 'Ends of the Earth' will end up a top 5 record at country radio — 'if not a No. 1 record,' he says — both he and Myers are thinking bigger than the country audience. 'We're talking about girls in Greenwich, Connecticut, coming to these shows,' the exec says. Yet 'trying to make super-commercial pop records — that would be the kiss of death,' according to Weiss. Myers has been recording his next album at FAME, the studio known as the cradle of the so-called Muscle Shoals sound popularized by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Etta James. And he's playing more gigs on the road this year than he ever has — 109 at last count. It's a number he's thinking of commemorating with one more tattoo, maybe when he fixes his armadillo, since he can get it done legally in Texas now after turning 18 last month. 'Some places are tough with it,' he says. 'We called a shop in Austin a while back: 'Hey, it's a 17-year-old — think you can do it?' They were like, 'No, that's child endangerment.'' He laughs. ''Jesus, I got two months, then you'll do it, no question.''
Refinery29
13 minutes ago
- Refinery29
Louis Vuitton Beauty Is Almost Here — & I Tried Everything First
Louis Vuitton has always been synonymous with fashion and travel accessories, and now, the iconic French maison is expanding its collection of luxury goods (including a fragrance range that launched in 2016) to bet big on makeup. Today marks a new chapter in the heritage brand's history with La Beauté Louis Vuitton, a debut collection of beauty products that combines signature LV house codes. And behind it all? Iconic makeup artist Dame Pat McGrath, as creative director. 'Working backstage for over 20 years at Louis Vuitton fashion shows, I am thrilled to now play such a key role in the launch of La Beauté Louis Vuitton, which is the result of extraordinary craftsmanship, creativity and innovation,' McGrath says via press release. The inaugural lineup includes lipstick, lip balm and a curated array of eyeshadow palettes, all conceived as cosmetics, yes, but also objets d'art to be kept, refilled and treasured for years to come. Let's start with LV Rouge lipstick. Available in 55 shades (a subtle nod to the Roman numerals LV) and two finishes (matte and satin), infused with lip-loving ingredients like shea butter and hyaluronic acid, plus waxes derived from rose, jasmine and mimosa flowers. Each lipstick bullet is stamped with the iconic LV monogram and features the signature monogram flower on the cap. Taking the sensorial experience to the next level, the lipsticks are scented with a custom floral fragrance developed by house perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud. As I swiped on the various shades, they felt like the equivalent of couture on my lips; the shades are dimensional and beautifully pigmented, and feel comfortable and effortless on my lips. Monogram Rouge, a muted warm red that almost wears like a neutral, feels as effortlessly chic as French girl beauty always — and rather deceptively — appears. It doesn't feel makeup-y or lipstick-y, but rather like a luxury accessory that brings your entire look to life. Next, there's LV Baume — the most luxurious lip balm I have ever tried. Available in 10 shades (including clear), the hydrating formula adds a sheer tint that brings lips to life. (My favourite of the bunch: Monogram Touch, a sheer chocolate brown that echoes the unmistakable initials on the iconic LV canvas.) Like the lipsticks, the balms are also gently scented with a subtle raspberry-mint fragrance and are easily refillable. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Louis Vuitton (@louisvuitton) Last, but not least, adorn your eyelids with the LV Ombres eyeshadow quads, which are available in eight distinct colour stories. Ranging from luminous beige to lipstick-inspired (and surprisingly wearable) burgundy, the silky, pigmented shadows are gentle on the eyes, thanks to moisturising ingredients like plant-derived squalane and camelina flower oil extract. Best of all, the quads take the guesswork out of picking shades that work together in a single eye look. (These gorgeous palettes are also refillable, but note that each petal-shaped pan is magnetised individually and requires a bit of finesse to swap in and out.) The full collection drops on 25th August, so be sure to set those alarms if you want to own a piece of luxury beauty history. (And when we say 'luxury', we mean it: LV Rouge and LV Baume retail for £120 each, and LV Ombres go for £190.) 'I've always said makeup is more than product: it's performance, obsession and emotion,' McGrath says. 'This new chapter is about pushing craftsmanship into a new realm.'
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘High Potential' Stars Take Fans Behind the Scenes of Season 2 in New Video
High Potential Season 2 is taking shape at ABC as the network gears up for the return of Kaitlin Olson's Morgan and crew, who are tackling new mysteries this fall. In anticipation of the show's arrival, ABC has unveiled a few sneak peeks, the premiere date, and announced some exciting casting for fans to look forward to. As mentioned above, the hit drama is welcoming plenty of new faces to the mix, and several other details have already emerged surrounding the show, including possible directions the story might take. Along with setting the show's fall timeslot, new casting, and more, we're breaking down everything you need to know about what's to come. When is High Potential Season 2 going to premiere? ABC previously teased that High Potential's second season would arrive in the fall of 2025, airing in the 10/9c timeslot on Tuesdays following the network's other hit, Dancing With the Stars, which will air in the 8/7c slot. In the latest update from ABC, High Potential Season 2 will officially return on Tuesday, September 16. Does High Potential Season 2 have a trailer? No, there is no Season 2 trailer for High Potential yet, but stay tuned for first looks as we approach the fall TV season. In the meantime, ABC has shared a fun behind-the-scenes video featuring Olson and costars at the police station. Check it out below: Who will star in High Potential Season 2? There couldn't be High Potential without Kaitlin Olson as Morgan Gillroy, a mom with a high IQ who's been serving as a consultant with the LAPD. Also returning are Daniel Sunjata as Detective Karadec, Judy Reyes as Lieutenant Selena Soto, Javicia Leslie as Daphne, Deniz Akdeniz as Lev 'Oz' Osman, and Amirah J and Matthew Lamb as Morgan's kids, Ava and Elliot. Additionally, Taran Killiam is also likely to be back as Morgan's ex, Ludo. Meanwhile, Deadline has revealed Shameless actor Steve Howey will play a series regular role in Season 2. Howey will portray Jesse Wagner, the LAPD's new precinct captain. Described as a politically savvy person, Jesse knows how to wear an expensive suit and oozes charm. He has a disruptor quality and thinks outside the box like Morgan, and he'll put himself in the middle of the action, whether it's wanted or not. The latest addition to the series is Mekhi Phifer, who will join the show in a recurring guest star capacity, although details surrounding his role remain under wraps, according to Variety, which revealed his casting. Who will make High Potential Season 2? Season 1 of High Potential was created for television by Drew Goddard, who executive produces the series alongside Sarah Esberg. Olson also serves as a producer on the title. High Potential is based on the French series known as Haut Potentiel Intellectuel. What will High Potential Season 2 be about? Only time will tell which storylines will continue to unfold, but we anticipate Season 2 carrying on Morgan's investigations with the LAPD as she teams up with Karadec and crew. Stay tuned to see how it all unfolds, and let us know what you want to see in High Potential's second season when it arrives. High Potential, Season 2 Premiere, Tuesday, September 16, 10/9c, ABC Solve the daily Crossword
