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Forbes
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Sparks On Their New Album ‘MAD!' And 5 Decades Of Brotherly Musical Harmony
Sparks: (L-R) Ron and Russell Mael. There's a song from the new Sparks album MAD! that in some way perfectly sums up the 50-year-plus career of the legendary musical duo of brothers Russell and Ron Mael. With such lyrics as 'Got the fuel/Broke the rules,' 'My advice/No advice' and 'I don't care,' the track 'Do Things My Own Way' speaks of the Maels' philosophy of always following one' own creative muse rather than what is commercially fashionable. 'When we did our first album with Todd Rundgren [for 1972's Sparks], he always instilled in us, 'Stick to your own vision,'' says singer Russell Mael. ''Don't veer off course because you've got an amazingly strong viewpoint and personality and character to what you do and don't water it down.'' And so, we've kind of adopted that stance from the beginning. We really feel it's important that you just stick to your creative impulses. So we feel that that song encapsulates that spirit.' 'Do Things My Own Way' is among the many standout songs on MAD!, Sparks' 28th studio album and the Los Angeles-based duo's debut release on the indie label Transgressive Records. The new record, due out this Friday, features the hallmarks of Sparks' sound: a distinct amalgamation of eccentric lyrics and art rock. Keyboardist Ron Mael says there's no thematic concept going into making MAD!, as with a majority of Sparks' previous albums. 'We kind of start with the songs and see what the direction is,' he says, 'and that's kind of where we go. We hope that an album in the end makes some sense, even if it's not something that can be really verbalized.' Sparks' songs have a strong cinematic aspect (more on that later), as heard on 'JanSport Backpack,' another track unveiled ahead of the album's release. The JanSport in the song serves as a visual symbol of a relationship in trouble. 'We spent quite a bit of time in Japan, and there were a lot of really stylish girls walking around with JanSport backpacks,' says Ron. 'So you think, 'Well, what song could be built around that particular image of seeing a girl from behind wearing a JanSport backpack?' and making it like the sadness of a relationship that maybe isn't quite working, and the JanSport backpack being the image of the girl walking away from you.' The satirical nature of Sparks' songs continues with the haunting and noirish 'Running Up a Tab at the Hotel for the Fab,' which Ron says is about a not-so-financially-well-off guy who is trying to impress a girl. 'He shows her a good time at a hotel that's way beyond his means and goes through minibars and dinners and everything,' he says. 'But in the end, he has to pay the price. And so he's sent to Rikers. But he said it's all worth it if she visits him in prison and he hopes he'll be on parole soon. So it has a semi-happy ending.' Not many artists would pay a homage or tribute to Los Angeles' (and in general the country's) busiest and congested freeway. But in the world of Sparks, the I-405, which serves as the title of a song from MAD!, serves as a symbol of city pride. 'It was kind of an ode to our freeway that, from certain vantage points, has a really beautiful quality to it,' Russell says, 'especially at night, if you see all the taillights stuck bumper to bumper with each other in gridlock, it takes on its own beauty. So in a way, it's our Seine River, our magical spot for an Angeleno.' Another intriguing album track is the haunting operatic-like 'A Long Red Light,' which is essentially a repetition of the lyric 'a long red light.' 'It was actually a literal intention,' Ron says, 'but it can be viewed as like the hope that something will turn green in a more personal life kind of way with another person.' 'The intent, at least when it came up,' Russell adds, 'was to make it more literal, that the frustration of sitting there at this red light. We like taking a really specific incident that everyone's encountered, but turning it into something more than that.' In a break from the duo's usual irony, 'Drowned in a Sea of Tears,' another of MAD!'s singles, is one of Sparks' most dramatic and heartbreaking songs. Showcasing Russell's falsetto singing, it also touches on a relationship at the crossroads. 'It is sincere and semi-tragic,' Russell says of the song's story. 'We did a video for it, too, that we think captured the mood really well of that relationship. [The woman and I in the clip] do a little quick sort of dance and then with a bunch of other more beautiful women in the background that fade off into the distance. And then she realizes that that was one of the happy moments they had together. Then it quickly ends as everybody fades away out of the image…and then she literally is drowning in a sea of tears in her car.' MAD! ends on an uplifting note with 'Lord Have Mercy,' the brothers' favorite track from the album; Ron jokingly says it shows him being a softie at heart. 'It was one of the ones that was written in a more traditional way, where I just had the song and we brought it into the studio,' he recalls. 'I had the title, but I couldn't figure out a way not to be that we were preaching. So it was very hard to find a stance. And so I finally figured out that maybe if it's somebody overhearing somebody else singing that song in a certain sense, then it would distance us from that.' Sparks will be touring starting in June with dates in Japan and Europe, followed by stops in North America this September. In addition to their recording and touring work, the brothers have been busy getting their film project with legendary director John Woo, off the ground. It's the brothers' first cinema-related work since writing the screenplay and music for the 2021 movie musical Annette, directed by Leos Carax. The collaboration happened by chance when the Maels came across a Los Angeles Times piece in which Woo said he had always wanted to do a musical. Says Russell: 'We thought, 'John Woo, a musical? That is really odd.' And we said, 'We've got to contact him' — but then, thinking he probably won't respond to what we do or our sensibility. He lives in L.A., which was fortunate. He came to our studio, sat through the whole two hours of the whole story, and said, 'This is amazing. I want to do it.' And we went, 'Wow.'' 'We've been working with John Woo for the past year-and-a-half revising some elements of the screenplay that we wrote,' he also says. 'But he's so sold on the project and the music, which seems so unlikely that John Woo would respond to a Sparks musical. But when you're with him, he's so engaged in the project. It's really exciting.' The brothers' experience with Annette was a confidence booster for them to continue on movie projects. 'It's such a dream for us,' says Ron, 'because we are huge cinema buffs, to actually see something that you wrote on a screen. But also even the process of it is something that it's totally different than working on your own record, where you're the commander-in-chief of the whole thing. 'With a film,' he continues, 'it's such a collaborative process where you're putting your trust into somebody who really has faith in something you wrote. And John Woo has come up with ideas and he's such a visual person. So we really feel confident in being able to come through with the writing of the project.' Sparks' influence on future generations of musical artists (as discussed in the Edgar Wright 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers) continues: the British group the Last Dinner Party recently covered Sparks' classic hit 'This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us' from the duo's 1974 album Kimono in My House . 'We read so much about them,' Russell says of the Last Dinner Party, 'that so many reviews said, 'Hey, there's this group that sounds a lot of the spirit of Sparks.' Then we checked them out and we really liked them. And so then we found out, in fact, they did 'This Town." It's cool that there's a group like that in the U.K. and that has been inspired to some extent by what we've done. It's great.' Sparks: (L-R) Russell and Ron Mael. After 50 years-plus, the musical partnership between Russell and Ron remains strong as ever — a rarity in the history of sibling musical acts mostly known for their tense relationships. 'We share a sensibility about things,' Ron says. 'You can have discussions about individual sounds or whatever. But as far as the overall vision, it's something that we have continued. It's kind of unspoken now. It's just something that we can read each other's minds when we're working on things. 'And maybe just in a more practical way, our roles within the band don't really overlap. So neither of us is being squashed down by the other's position, which I guess has contributed to some frictions in other situations in bands. It's just being able to do things without having to talk about them so much and doing them is really such a relief.' 'For our situation, it's worked as a positive thing,' Russell adds. 'And yeah, we'll keep being brothers for a while more.'
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Tiny Canadian Islands That Contain Hints About Canada's Election
GANANOQUE, Ontario — The Canadian officer who pulled me over had a question I wasn't expecting. I had just turned my rental car out of the Gananoque marina after dinner on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Had I been speeding? Constable Gibson of the Gananoque Police Service had something else on her mind. 'You know there's a border, right?' she asked. 'The reason I pulled you over is because you were getting out of a boat with a backpack.' The police force of tiny Gananoque (and it seemed like the whole police force because two more cruisers pulled up behind Gibson) was concerned that I was entering Canada illegally — and potentially carrying some illicit goods in my ratty JanSport. (For the record, I had nothing more than a laptop, a notebook, a Mets hat and the latest Sally Rooney novel in there.) I spent the next half hour trying to explain that I was a journalist and that very evening I had been doing research on the rising tensions between the two countries at a dinner party on one of the river's Canadian islands. 'I'm sure you understand with all the craziness going on that we have to check and make sure,' a second officer named Mike, who was bald with a gray goatee, told me. I did understand 'all the craziness' very well. Since the start of Canada's federal election a month ago, I've been reporting on the two longtime allies who are suddenly at each other's throats. President Donald Trump has incensed Canadians with his '51st state' rhetoric, enough that a seemingly assured victory for Canada's Conservative Party has turned into a steady Liberal lead ahead of the vote on Monday. In the Thousand Islands region, where American and Canadian islands along the St. Lawrence River are separated seemingly at random, an aggrieved Canadian nationalism has blossomed and tourism to the United States side from Canada has withered to a trickle, potentially crippling a seasonal industry where profit margins are already tight. As the islands creak back to life for another summer, the residents of these tightly knit communities are suddenly navigating a new world beset by a political crisis far from their own making. The 'fish can't see a border,' multiple Canadians and Americans told me about the river around which they've built lives. But increasingly, the inhabitants of towns such as Gananoque and Kingston in Ontario and Cape Vincent, Clayton and Alexandria Bay in New York, and all of the islands dotted in between are anxious about the future of what once was a shared community.I suggested the officers call Susan Smith, the proud Canadian inhabitant of Sagastaweka Island, the editor of Thousand Islands Life magazine and my host for the evening, which they did. They told me that my story checked out and I was free to go. They were just doing their jobs, they said, a job that Officer Mike told me straight out is now imbued with a different context than it was before January, when Trump fired his first salvo in the trade war. My encounter with the police, which happened on my last evening in Canada, still served as a powerful reminder: The relationship between the two countries is fraying. Everyone's jumpier than they used to be. Friendly exchanges along the river, which once turned into lifelong friendships and marriages, are no longer as simple as owning a passport. 'Gadzooks,' Smith emailed me after the exchange. 'This is a first for us! Never had a call from a cop.' There are actually 1,864 islands in the Thousand Islands, strung along a 50-mile stretch of the St. Lawrence River. During my time reporting I probably covered 100 miles driving along the coastline and visited just two of the islands and spoke to only 17 residents. But the adjective everyone used – on both sides of the border — is betrayal. Betrayal of a centuries-long partnership, betrayal of a shared set of ideals, betrayal of a way of life along the river. There's also, though, a palpable sense of confusion. Why did this happen when it did? And what feels so different now than during Trump's first term? 'For Canada, it is like being in a long-term relationship and waking up in the morning to a spouse who is furious with you because of the things you did and didn't do in their dreams while they were sleeping,' Peter VanSickle, a Gananoque resident who worked in corporate real estate, told me. On a windy Friday morning, VanSickle handed me a bright orange life vest and took me out on his aluminum and steel-reinforced boat for a trip around the river. Maritime laws state that you're allowed to cross back and forth between segments of the river owned by Canada and the United States as much as you want, as long as you don't anchor or dock on either side. It's illegal to cross between both mainlands and between Canadian and American islands. Even on our tour of the Canadian side of the river, though, VanSickle repeatedly pointed out homes or islands owned by Americans.'There's Steve and Nancy Friot's place,' he told me. Steve Friot, he said, is a senior judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (appointed by George W. Bush) but also has a vacation home on the Canadian side of the islands. 'If I'm dealing with friends I have in the States, nothing's changed, the border doesn't exist,' VanSickle continued. And yet, he won't be crossing to the American coastline or stopping at any American islands as much. 'We're going to be a lot more hesitant about going over and checking in, because you don't know what's going on. You're rolling the dice on what the outcome of [crossing] is. Maybe 90 percent of the time it's fine. But even if there's just a problem 10 percent of the time, that's a huge risk.' The rising tensions along the border are not abstract for the river's residents. And they've changed the broader political calculus. Before Trump took office, VanSickle described himself as a 'reluctant Conservative,' leaning that direction because of some broad dissatisfaction with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's time in office. He's changed his mind and is now supporting a continued Liberal government. '[Conservative Leader Pierre] Poilievre seems like the barking dog,' VanSickle, 69, says. 'The car stops and then you don't know where to go.'Not everyone in town has such a clear sense of frustration. The mayor of Gananoque, John Beddows, who describes himself as a political independent and says he will probably never join a party, prefers a more philosophical, wait-and-see approach. 'If you want to ask me what I think of President Trump's second term, ask me in 20 years,' he said on a walk around town. 'It's the consequences. Did it achieve what was intended? If yes, to what degree, and what were the second-, third- and fourth-order effects?'But there's one visible detail that shows the growing disconnect between the communities on either side of the border. On the American side, Canadian and American flags still largely fly together. Across the river, there are no American flags to be found any longer. But Canadian flags are everywhere, hanging in and from windows, on cars, in shops. In Cape Vincent, N.Y., three American retirees sat around a table in one of their well-adorned living rooms and talked about something they rarely used to discuss: the border. Rob Russell is a forensic psychologist. Rich Sauer is a former school superintendent. And Geoffrey Culkin is the former director of training for the New York State Police. The three are Thousand Islands friends, part of what they refer to as a 'coffee klutch.' The conversation in recent weeks has regularly turned to Trump. Their slice of the state is reliably conservative; they're represented in Congress by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney. Right next door is prominent Republican Elise Stefanik's district. But the three retirees, two of whom referred to themselves as independents who had regularly voted Republican before (though none voted for Trump), worry about how Trump's threats are changing their region. They talked about rumors that Horne's ferry, which operated between Cape Vincent and Wolfe's Island, Ontario, would cease operation this summer — in part because its longtime proprietor died last year, and in part because fewer people want to travel to and Culkin told me that some weeks ago they decided to take a trip up to Canada to see for themselves how things had changed. The border crossing, they said, was easy — due to no other cars trying to get into Canada, something they'd never seen before. Once they got to Canada, they went to two restaurants in Kingston to do some modest diplomacy with the locals. 'We went to buy drinks and tell them we're sorry,' said Sauer. 'You would expect for some kind of edge or resentment, or somebody to make a comment. But everyone was just so receptive.' 'My car didn't get keyed,' Culkin said. The group of friends plans to go back on a similar mission.'One of the things that we learn in early childhood is that if you hurt somebody, you apologize,' Russell said. 'And I felt a strong need to apologize, not for some self-serving reason, like, 'Oh, we want your tourist dollars here.' I don't care about that. I'm apologizing because what we did to you was wrong, and it was mean-spirited, and I regret that it happened, and I think that we owe them an apology.' All three readily admit that regret is not a sentiment widely shared on the American side of the river where support for Trump's get-tough economic policies remains relatively high. On the Canadian side as well, there are broad differences of opinion about the party that can best deal with rising threats from the U.S. The riding (the name for political districts in Canada) that includes Kingston, a college town, is a safe Liberal district, while the one next to it, which includes Gananoque, has elected a Conservative since 2004 and will almost certainly do so again on Monday. The Thousand Islands is a setting that lends itself to mystery novels in the winter and bacchanalia in the summer. There are essentially no inhabitants of the islands year-round; the people who live in the area for the whole year are in towns along the shore. But between the end of May and the beginning of September, the sleepy hamlets and the islands swell with visitors from around the world. In other words, many of these towns rely on a busy summer season of tourism to survive. That's been imperiled in recent months. The number of travelers entering the U.S. from Canada dropped by almost 900,000 in March compared to the year prior, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection — a 17-percent decline that's ranks as the worst non-Covid drop ever. On the American side of the Thousand Islands, around 15 percent of spending comes from Canadian travelers, according to Corey Fram, the director of the Thousand Islands International Tourism Council. So, a huge drop in Canadian travelers for summer tourism-based businesses that are already operating on the margins could turn into a disaster. Fram works in New York but the tourism council advertises on both sides of the river. In response to the crisis, he's had to adopt a new two-market approach.'I've stopped showing American images and icons in my Thousand Islands branding to Canadian audiences on social media networks, because that allowed for some of that negative sentiment to fester,' he said. 'We're showing American portions of the destination to our U.S. audience and Canadian portions to our Canadian audience.' At the same time, though, Fram is playing around with a new idea: togetherness in the face of crisis. He showed me a mockup on his phone of a simple advertisement — a group of American and Canadian islands seen from above on a cloudless summer day, with some text in the sky: 'Where we've always met in the middle.'Susie Smith's house on Sagastaweka Island is one of those places in the middle that Fram is talking about. She has gathered a wide assortment of people from both sides of the border for dinner parties for many years. Not including one journalist, seven people and three generations of Americans and Canadians gathered together on a night in mid-April: Her husband Marceli Wein, daughter Janet Staples, Janet's husband Jeff Staples, their son Eliot Staples, his girlfriend Sacha Crosby and a family friend Olivia Goodfellow. Eliot, with his dueling passports, wore a Super Bowl XXXIX sweatshirt, repping his favorite New England Patriots. They talked about playoff hockey and the Ottawa Senators. Jeff was proudly displaying the t-shirt of his own company, On the River Construction. The OTR logo includes an American flag and a Canadian one meshing as the sun went down, the conversation turned from the personal to the political. 'It does feel strange, this summer versus last summer,' Janet said. 'Don't you think?' 'It's because of the unknown of everything,' Jeff said. 'There's an unsettling — not sure…' 'Trump cloud,' Janet rejoined. 'I've not once gone to the grocery store where someone beside me hasn't said, 'That's made in the USA, you know,'' Smith said. 'If you do go to the U.S., you kind of have to justify it — if you tell people, there's a sort of, 'Hmmm,'' Crosby noted. '[Americans] are underestimating the anger.' They all agreed with the conversation shifted again. 'I think what I've seen since this has all started is how unified Canada has been,' Crosby said. 'All of a sudden, every single person agrees on the same thing; I've never known that. Every single person has Canada pride.' And then, it turned once again. Favorite programs on Canadian Broadcasting. Stories of how Marceli's family survived the Holocaust and how he came to Canada and built a life for himself. Stories about togetherness and difference, politics and immigration and nights of too much drinking and what it really means to know your neighbor. What it means to be a family on either side of a river, divided by a sometimes-invisible partition that suddenly looks huge. Then it got dark and I got back into the boat with Elliot and Jeff. They dropped me at the marina. And a cop asked me if I knew there was a border.
Politico
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Politico
The Tiny Canadian Islands That Contain Hints About Canada's Election
GANANOQUE, Ontario — The Canadian officer who pulled me over had a question I wasn't expecting. I had just turned my rental car out of the Gananoque marina after dinner on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Had I been speeding? Constable Gibson of the Gananoque Police Service had something else on her mind. 'You know there's a border, right?' she asked. 'The reason I pulled you over is because you were getting out of a boat with a backpack.' The police force of tiny Gananoque (and it seemed like the whole police force because two more cruisers pulled up behind Gibson) was concerned that I was entering Canada illegally — and potentially carrying some illicit goods in my ratty JanSport. (For the record, I had nothing more than a laptop, a notebook, a Mets hat and the latest Sally Rooney novel in there.) I spent the next half hour trying to explain that I was a journalist and that very evening I had been doing research on the rising tensions between the two countries at a dinner party on one of the river's Canadian islands. 'I'm sure you understand with all the craziness going on that we have to check and make sure,' a second officer named Mike, who was bald with a gray goatee, told me. I did understand 'all the craziness' very well. Since the start of Canada's federal election a month ago, I've been reporting on the two longtime allies who are suddenly at each other's throats. President Donald Trump has incensed Canadians with his '51st state' rhetoric, enough that a seemingly assured victory for Canada's Conservative Party has turned into a steady Liberal lead ahead of the vote on Monday. In the Thousand Islands region, where American and Canadian islands along the St. Lawrence River are separated seemingly at random, an aggrieved Canadian nationalism has blossomed and tourism to the United States side from Canada has withered to a trickle, potentially crippling a seasonal industry where profit margins are already tight. As the islands creak back to life for another summer, the residents of these tightly knit communities are suddenly navigating a new world beset by a political crisis far from their own making. The 'fish can't see a border,' multiple Canadians and Americans told me about the river around which they've built lives. But increasingly, the inhabitants of towns such as Gananoque and Kingston in Ontario and Cape Vincent, Clayton and Alexandria Bay in New York, and all of the islands dotted in between are anxious about the future of what once was a shared community. I suggested the officers call Susan Smith, the proud Canadian inhabitant of Sagastaweka Island, the editor of Thousand Islands Life magazine and my host for the evening, which they did. They told me that my story checked out and I was free to go. They were just doing their jobs, they said, a job that Officer Mike told me straight out is now imbued with a different context than it was before January, when Trump fired his first salvo in the trade war. My encounter with the police, which happened on my last evening in Canada, still served as a powerful reminder: The relationship between the two countries is fraying. Everyone's jumpier than they used to be. Friendly exchanges along the river, which once turned into lifelong friendships and marriages, are no longer as simple as owning a passport. 'Gadzooks,' Smith emailed me after the exchange. 'This is a first for us! Never had a call from a cop.' There are actually 1,864 islands in the Thousand Islands, strung along a 50-mile stretch of the St. Lawrence River. During my time reporting I probably covered 100 miles driving along the coastline and visited just two of the islands and spoke to only 17 residents. But the adjective everyone used – on both sides of the border — is betrayal. Betrayal of a centuries-long partnership, betrayal of a shared set of ideals, betrayal of a way of life along the river. There's also, though, a palpable sense of confusion. Why did this happen when it did? And what feels so different now than during Trump's first term? 'For Canada, it is like being in a long-term relationship and waking up in the morning to a spouse who is furious with you because of the things you did and didn't do in their dreams while they were sleeping,' Peter VanSickle, a Gananoque resident who worked in corporate real estate, told me. On a windy Friday morning, VanSickle handed me a bright orange life vest and took me out on his aluminum and steel-reinforced boat for a trip around the river. Maritime laws state that you're allowed to cross back and forth between segments of the river owned by Canada and the United States as much as you want, as long as you don't anchor or dock on either side. It's illegal to cross between both mainlands and between Canadian and American islands. Even on our tour of the Canadian side of the river, though, VanSickle repeatedly pointed out homes or islands owned by Americans. 'There's Steve and Nancy Friot's place,' he told me. Steve Friot, he said, is a senior judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (appointed by George W. Bush) but also has a vacation home on the Canadian side of the islands. 'If I'm dealing with friends I have in the States, nothing's changed, the border doesn't exist,' VanSickle continued. And yet, he won't be crossing to the American coastline or stopping at any American islands as much. 'We're going to be a lot more hesitant about going over and checking in, because you don't know what's going on. You're rolling the dice on what the outcome of [crossing] is. Maybe 90 percent of the time it's fine. But even if there's just a problem 10 percent of the time, that's a huge risk.' The rising tensions along the border are not abstract for the river's residents. And they've changed the broader political calculus. Before Trump took office, VanSickle described himself as a 'reluctant Conservative,' leaning that direction because of some broad dissatisfaction with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's time in office. He's changed his mind and is now supporting a continued Liberal government. '[Conservative Leader Pierre] Poilievre seems like the barking dog,' VanSickle, 69, says. 'The car stops and then you don't know where to go.' Not everyone in town has such a clear sense of frustration. The mayor of Gananoque, John Beddows, who describes himself as a political independent and says he will probably never join a party, prefers a more philosophical, wait-and-see approach. 'If you want to ask me what I think of President Trump's second term, ask me in 20 years,' he said on a walk around town. 'It's the consequences. Did it achieve what was intended? If yes, to what degree, and what were the second-, third- and fourth-order effects?' But there's one visible detail that shows the growing disconnect between the communities on either side of the border. On the American side, Canadian and American flags still largely fly together. Across the river, there are no American flags to be found any longer. But Canadian flags are everywhere, hanging in and from windows, on cars, in shops. In Cape Vincent, N.Y., three American retirees sat around a table in one of their well-adorned living rooms and talked about something they rarely used to discuss: the border. Rob Russell is a forensic psychologist. Rich Sauer is a former school superintendent. And Geoffrey Culkin is the former director of training for the New York State Police. The three are Thousand Islands friends, part of what they refer to as a 'coffee klutch.' The conversation in recent weeks has regularly turned to Trump. Their slice of the state is reliably conservative; they're represented in Congress by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney. Right next door is prominent Republican Elise Stefanik's district. But the three retirees, two of whom referred to themselves as independents who had regularly voted Republican before (though none voted for Trump), worry about how Trump's threats are changing their region. They talked about rumors that Horne's ferry, which operated between Cape Vincent and Wolfe's Island, Ontario, would cease operation this summer — in part because its longtime proprietor died last year, and in part because fewer people want to travel to Canada. Sauer and Culkin told me that some weeks ago they decided to take a trip up to Canada to see for themselves how things had changed. The border crossing, they said, was easy — due to no other cars trying to get into Canada, something they'd never seen before. Once they got to Canada, they went to two restaurants in Kingston to do some modest diplomacy with the locals. 'We went to buy drinks and tell them we're sorry,' said Sauer. 'You would expect for some kind of edge or resentment, or somebody to make a comment. But everyone was just so receptive.' 'My car didn't get keyed,' Culkin said. The group of friends plans to go back on a similar mission. 'One of the things that we learn in early childhood is that if you hurt somebody, you apologize,' Russell said. 'And I felt a strong need to apologize, not for some self-serving reason, like, 'Oh, we want your tourist dollars here.' I don't care about that. I'm apologizing because what we did to you was wrong, and it was mean-spirited, and I regret that it happened, and I think that we owe them an apology.' All three readily admit that regret is not a sentiment widely shared on the American side of the river where support for Trump's get-tough economic policies remains relatively high. On the Canadian side as well, there are broad differences of opinion about the party that can best deal with rising threats from the U.S. The riding (the name for political districts in Canada) that includes Kingston, a college town, is a safe Liberal district, while the one next to it, which includes Gananoque, has elected a Conservative since 2004 and will almost certainly do so again on Monday. The Thousand Islands is a setting that lends itself to mystery novels in the winter and bacchanalia in the summer. There are essentially no inhabitants of the islands year-round; the people who live in the area for the whole year are in towns along the shore. But between the end of May and the beginning of September, the sleepy hamlets and the islands swell with visitors from around the world. In other words, many of these towns rely on a busy summer season of tourism to survive. That's been imperiled in recent months. The number of travelers entering the U.S. from Canada dropped by almost 900,000 in March compared to the year prior, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection — a 17-percent decline that's ranks as the worst non-Covid drop ever. On the American side of the Thousand Islands, around 15 percent of spending comes from Canadian travelers, according to Corey Fram, the director of the Thousand Islands International Tourism Council. So, a huge drop in Canadian travelers for summer tourism-based businesses that are already operating on the margins could turn into a disaster. Fram works in New York but the tourism council advertises on both sides of the river. In response to the crisis, he's had to adopt a new two-market approach. 'I've stopped showing American images and icons in my Thousand Islands branding to Canadian audiences on social media networks, because that allowed for some of that negative sentiment to fester,' he said. 'We're showing American portions of the destination to our U.S. audience and Canadian portions to our Canadian audience.' At the same time, though, Fram is playing around with a new idea: togetherness in the face of crisis. He showed me a mockup on his phone of a simple advertisement — a group of American and Canadian islands seen from above on a cloudless summer day, with some text in the sky: 'Where we've always met in the middle.' Susie Smith's house on Sagastaweka Island is one of those places in the middle that Fram is talking about. She has gathered a wide assortment of people from both sides of the border for dinner parties for many years. Not including one journalist, seven people and three generations of Americans and Canadians gathered together on a night in mid-April: Her husband Marceli Wein, daughter Janet Staples, Janet's husband Jeff Staples, their son Eliot Staples, his girlfriend Sacha Crosby and a family friend Olivia Goodfellow. Eliot, with his dueling passports, wore a Super Bowl XXXIX sweatshirt, repping his favorite New England Patriots. They talked about playoff hockey and the Ottawa Senators. Jeff was proudly displaying the t-shirt of his own company, On the River Construction. The OTR logo includes an American flag and a Canadian one meshing as one. As the sun went down, the conversation turned from the personal to the political. 'It does feel strange, this summer versus last summer,' Janet said. 'Don't you think?' 'It's because of the unknown of everything,' Jeff said. 'There's an unsettling — not sure…' 'Trump cloud,' Janet rejoined. 'I've not once gone to the grocery store where someone beside me hasn't said, 'That's made in the USA, you know,'' Smith said. 'If you do go to the U.S., you kind of have to justify it — if you tell people, there's a sort of, 'Hmmm,'' Crosby noted. '[Americans] are underestimating the anger.' They all agreed with that. Then, the conversation shifted again. 'I think what I've seen since this has all started is how unified Canada has been,' Crosby said. 'All of a sudden, every single person agrees on the same thing; I've never known that. Every single person has Canada pride.' And then, it turned once again. Favorite programs on Canadian Broadcasting. Stories of how Marceli's family survived the Holocaust and how he came to Canada and built a life for himself. Stories about togetherness and difference, politics and immigration and nights of too much drinking and what it really means to know your neighbor. What it means to be a family on either side of a river, divided by a sometimes-invisible partition that suddenly looks huge. Then it got dark and I got back into the boat with Elliot and Jeff. They dropped me at the marina. And a cop asked me if I knew there was a border.
WIRED
09-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- WIRED
Which GoRuck Backpack Should You Buy?
I was first inspired to try rucking last year after reading this New York Times article, which suggests, 'if you have anything that weighs anything in your house, put that inside [a] backpack and simply go for a walk.' One hike with a cookbook-stuffed JanSport and an injured rhomboid muscle later, I found myself researching proper rucking backpacks. A $255 Rucker not being in my budget, I settled on GoRuck's 15L bullet. Billed as a daypack, the Bullet has the same 210D Cordura back panel and under-shoulder straps as the Rucker but a slimmer profile and less weight capacity. It can still fit a Ruck Plate in one of its three interior pockets, or a 20 lb. or 40 lb. sandbag in the main compartment, which helpfully opens flat. (I use a 20 lb. bag of rice from Walmart.) There's no hip belt, so I probably wouldn't attempt to go above 20 lbs., but for an average-sized woman in her mid-40s, I've found the Bullet to be perfect for short to moderate hikes. Weight feels evenly placed, the padded straps don't dig in or shift, and there's a D-ring inside to attach a hydration bladder, as there are no water bottle pockets. It's also the perfect size to double as a regular backpack for school or travel, and for $35 more you can spring for a version with a laptop compartment to make it a work bag. —Kat Merck $160 at GoRuck (Classic, 15L) $195 at GoRuck (Laptop, 16L) The GR3 is available in either 35L or 45L sizes, with the latter being the largest possible bag that's still TSA compliant. Perfect for travelers that haven't yet learned how to travel light, the GR3 can carry everything you need for two weeks on the road (or a lifetime if that's more your style). The GR3 is made of the same materials as the other GR series packs and like the GR2 has two compartments. They're just much bigger compartments. It is in fact difficult to convey just how big this bag is except to say that if you're like me—under 6 feet tall—you will look slightly ridiculous with the GR3 on your back. For that reason, and the fact that I don't need this much space, I much prefer the GR2, which, despite being nearly the same capacity, is much more svelte. One nice feature of the GR3 that the GR2 lacks is side compression straps (with buckles). These make the GR3 somewhat compressible, keeping it more manageable when it's not completely full, but even with these, and even on the 35L version, this is still a big pack and there's no hiding that. That said, if you need the room, the GR3 is the pack to get. GoRuck, should you read this, please consider a GR2 with compression straps.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
JanSport and L2 Brands Announce Strategic Partnership to Expand Collegiate Offerings
New collection of collegiate-branded backpacks launches July 2025, with apparel to follow DENVER, Feb. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- JanSport, the iconic backpack brand known for being Always With You, is teaming up with L2 Brands, a leader in collegiate and destination apparel, to ignite its presence on college campuses nationwide. This strategic partnership will introduce a fresh lineup of collegiate-branded JanSport backpacks, launching in university bookstores in July 2025, with an apparel collection to follow. The first phase of the partnership will feature JanSport's signature backpack styles, including the Big Student, SuperBreak Plus, Right Pack, and Draw Sack, all customized with official university branding. Designed to support students throughout their academic journey, these backpacks combine school pride with the durability and reliability JanSport is known for. "JanSport has been a trusted part of the college experience for generations, and this partnership with L2 Brands allows us to deepen that connection," said Alexandra Reveles, VP of Global Brand at JanSport. "By expanding our presence in university bookstores, we're reinforcing our commitment to being 'Always With You'—a true ally for students as they navigate their college journey and beyond." L2 Brands, which has a long-standing reputation for high-quality, trend-forward collegiate apparel and accessories, is the ideal partner for JanSport in this venture. "We are thrilled to collaborate with JanSport, a brand that resonates so strongly with students and alumni alike," said Pete Waldron, Chief Revenue Officer at L2 Brands. "Together, we're bringing an exciting, high-quality collection of collegiate gear to campuses nationwide, giving students even more ways to represent their schools with pride." Following the backpack launch in July 2025, the second phase of the partnership will introduce a co-branded collegiate apparel collection, with details to be announced at a later date. This collaboration aligns with JanSport's mission to support self-expression, adventure, and sustainability while remaining a trusted companion for students throughout their academic journey. For more information on the upcoming collegiate collection, visit or check your university bookstore in July 2025. About JanSport JanSport, a division of VF Outdoor, LLC., was founded in 1967 in the Pacific Northwest by three pioneers in the outdoor industry and is headquartered in Denver, CO. From the very beginning, JanSport has lived true to its purpose: Always With You. The brand is a true and trusted ally throughout all life's adventures, valuing inclusivity, authenticity, and self-expression. With sustainability at its core, JanSport is committed to improving the environmental impact of its products through material and manufacturing innovations while continuing to provide the same durability, versatility, and long life JanSport packs are known for. Though the brand began by manufacturing and marketing world-class outdoor backpacks, today, the product offerings include daypacks, bags, and accessories sold on in department stores, and in specialty and boutique retail locations worldwide. About L2 Brands L2 Brands, a respected leader in the collegiate, destination, golf, and corporate markets, is known for its commitment to quality, authenticity, and trend-right designs. With a history of over 30 years, L2 Brands has a diverse product assortment spanning across four different brands—League, Legacy, Ouray, and Locale. For media inquiries, please contact:Brandon Vancejansport_pr@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE JanSport Sign in to access your portfolio
