Latest news with #Watermark
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Artist celebrates growing old with ‘Feeling Our Age' exhibit in Laguna Niguel
Kathleen Cosgrove used to be a lobbyist, but when she turned 50 she sold her business and went to art school, trading persuasion for paintbrushes. Cosgrove, raised in Berkeley in the 1960s, believes both pursuits are connected. 'It's all about the same thing, and that is feeling like I want to make the world a better place, pining for social justice and human rights,' she said. 'I had that ingrained in me at a very young age, and it stuck with me all the way through. The only thing that's really changed is that art has become my voice, and that's really what this project is all about.' That project is the 'Feeling Our Age' exhibition, featuring 60 portraits of women ages 60 or older from around the country and all walks of life. Cosgrove, who is based in Vancouver, Wash. and also has a studio in Portland, painted all of the artworks. She also asked each woman who sat for a portrait to write a personal essay about her experiences as she grew older. The 'Feeling Our Age' exhibit will be on display at the Watermark Laguna Niguel senior living community through the end of June. Cosgrove, 73, said the project was partially born from the coronavirus pandemic. The loneliness of that time meant something specific to her, as her maternal grandmother contracted the Spanish flu during World War I and suffered brain damage from it. 'She was locked away in an insane asylum in South Dakota and I never met her,' Cosgrove said. 'It's just so wrong. [The COVID-19 pandemic] triggered a lot of personal emotion in me.' She found Watermark Laguna Niguel while looking for a place for a friend who had fallen and suffered a brain injury. Cosgrove ended up chatting with Troy Hollar, Watermark's national director of marketing and sales. 'We really had the same viewpoints about how people have been mistakenly treated, that ageism does exist, and how Watermark works to not only redefine the image of older people but to give them opportunity,' Cosgrove said. 'The portraits are one thing, and they're great, but each woman wrote a personal story about how it feels to be their age and what they aspire to at this point in their life. Those are all in their own words, and that, to me, is so inspiring. It just makes you feel good, and I hope it has inspired some of the people at Watermark as well.' The World Health Organization projects that one in six people worldwide will be 60 or over by 2030. But studies have shown that older workers often are victims of ageism in the workplace. The 'Feeling Our Age' collection is displayed throughout the property, said Sundeep Jeste, executive director of Watermark Laguna Niguel. It has sparked family members of residents, as well as members of the general public, to visit the property and check it out after an opening reception on May 15. Cosgrove also led abstract art workshops with residents. 'The pictures and the images really encapsulate the diversity of the community, what we strive for and what we're all about here,' Jeste said. 'Their stories are really a reflection of not only the residents living here, but also the team. It's really cool to see that come to light.' Jeste added that he's talked with Cosgrove about having local artists have a sort of residency at the retirement community in the future. Watermark and Cosgrove also put together, 'Feeling Our Age, Sixty Over Sixty,' a book featuring each of the portraits and essays. Cosgrove said pulling together this collection of strong women has been life-changing for her. She feels the project resonates with the facility's residents because she herself is the same age, 'not some young whippersnapper,' she said. 'I was a little bit cranky about the personal isolation I was feeling [during the pandemic] and how I felt that older people were being treated,' she said. 'That was my response to what was going on, so I figured that if that's how I felt, other people must feel that way too. '[The project] really made me shift my way of thinking and the way I approach my own life. I'm not quite so cranky anymore.'
Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
In search of Enya, the star who sailed away from the spotlight
She is estimated to be worth €140 million and has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide, quietly building a fortune from her Killiney castle, but the elusive Enya's mystery endures. Despite being Ireland's bestselling solo artist and second overall behind U2, Enya has never toured or even performed a solo concert. Heavily decorated with four Grammy awards and six World Music Awards, she remains intensely private, rarely gives interviews and has not made a public appearance in years. This, it seems, has only added to her allure, and more than 38 years after the release of her self-titled debut album, Enya's new-age ethereal voice, meticulously layered and haunting melodies have found a new audience. The 63-year-old Only Time singer has clocked up millions of views on TikTok. The American reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who has 2.1 million followers on TikTok, has made several videos of himself eating burritos to Enya's song Echoes in Rain. He has been on a campaign recently for permission to sample the track for a remix with I'll Do It, a song by his wife, Heidi Montag. He has abandoned a plan to visit Enya, warned by Irish people online that it would be a fruitless expedition, but his initiative has helped to create yet another generation of Enya fans. It's not the first time Enya has gone viral. In 2023, she was celebrated in all her mystical glory with the Enyacore trend, when fans created fantasy and medieval-style videos set to her music and shared them with the world. In 2019, she trended on Twitter when her single Caribbean Blue was the soundtrack to the final scene of Channel 4's hugely popular series Derry Girls. Enya also showed up on the soundtrack to Bo Burnham's 2018 indie film Eighth Grade. Last month, there was hope that the Donegal singer would attend the RTE Choice Music Prize event in Vicar Street, Dublin, to collect an award in recognition of the impact of Watermark, her 1988 album. Instead Enya, whose real name is Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, wrote a statement that was read out by Priscilla Kotey, managing director of Warner Music Ireland. It did not say whether Enya had plans to record another album. 'I am very very honoured tonight,' she said. 'When Watermark came out, I was just so proud to be able to make music. My love of music has always been a driving force to me and any success always feels like a great bonus, as I've been determined to create music which is true to myself from a very young age. Watermark really kickstarted my career and has always remained very special to me.' Even when Watermark was released, Enya, then 27, was described in the media as reclusive and as someone who put her music before her image. Today, she is rarely seen outside her 19th-century castle in Killiney, south Dublin, which she bought for IR£2.5 million in 1997. She was reported to have outbid Michael Flatley. Surely, though, someone must have seen her recently? The Sunday Times recently visited her home, which she named Manderley after the fictitious manor in Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca. Although the property is surrounded by 9ft stone walls and a solid timber gate, those who pass by can still see its Victorian turrets, which offer panoramic views of the Irish Sea. There was no answer but, after some very bad experiences with fans, Enya never opens the door to unexpected guests. In 2005, a stalker broke into her home and terrorised her for two hours. It was reported that the man had tied up a maid before searching the castle for Enya. She managed to avoid him by locking herself in a safe room as gardai rushed to the scene. In a separate incident, an Italian fan was said to have stalked Enya for more than a year, and stabbed himself after he was thrown out of her family's pub in Donegal. Many residents in the nearby village of Dalkey say they have never seen Enya in person, though they regularly encounter other big stars, such as the U2 singer Bono, as they go about their day-to-day business. However, neighbours have recalled seeing her being chauffeured in a brown Mercedes-Maybach limo, which was priced at more than €500,000 at the time. Only a few other people in Ireland have owned this car, including the Coolmore stud owner John Magnier and the property developer Johnny Ronan. In an interview several years ago, though, Enya laughed off descriptions of her as a recluse, saying simply that she was working. Born in 1961 and raised in Gweedore, Co Donegal, where Irish was her first language, Enya was the middle child among four brothers and four sisters. After leaving school, she studied classical music and in 1980 she joined several members of her family in the band Clannad, touring Europe and recording two albums with them. She left the band several years later to complete her studies and write her own music. • Enya: 'I walked away from the things that would have made me more famous' Despite having lost a core member, Clannad are still known as one of the most influential Irish groups of the past five decades. The Sunday Times reached out to the family band on social media to see if they could set up an interview with Enya. They responded: 'Unfortunately can't help with this. Best to contact Nicky Ryan through Warner Music … that's the only route.' Enya has co-owned a music company, Aigle Music, with Nicky and Roma Ryan since 1981. Nicky Ryan, a manager and music producer, is credited with having helped Enya bring her sound to life, and his wife, Roma, is known for adding another layer to her artistic legacy through her lyrics. Their support was not overlooked by Enya, who made sure to thank them in her statement at the RTE Choice Music Prize event. 'I couldn't have made it happen without Nicky and Roma, and I am eternally grateful for their talent, vision and support. This award is as much theirs as it is mine,' she said. Efforts were made to reach the Ryans at their home and studio in Killiney, but requests for a few words about Enya's success were politely declined via the intercom outside their gate. Enya's ethereal sound and unique blend of Celtic, classical, and ambient music still influence a wide range of artists across genres. Taylor Swift cited Enya as an influence on the atmospheric production of Folklore and Evermore. The Fugees memorably sampled Boadicea in Ready or Not (1996), bringing it into hip-hop culture, which was followed by Drake using the same song in Is There More (2018). Moby has spoken about Enya's influence on his approach to ambient soundscapes, and Grimes and Brandy have both said the Irish artist's ability to layer vocals and create lush soundscapes inspired their work. Lana Del Rey's dreamy and cinematic music draws comparisons to Enya's style, and Florence + the Machine use similar ethereal vocal layering and orchestral elements. Back in Dalkey village, business owners and locals were happy to hear of Enya's latest accolade, but could not recall seeing her in recent years. Jérôme Fernandes, owner of the Guinea Pig, said she had last dined at his restaurant before the Covid-19 pandemic. 'Even though she is rarely seen these days, Enya is still very much respected in Dalkey as she's brought so much positivity to the area,' he said. 'When she was here before Covid it was clear that she wasn't looking for attention and didn't stand out compared to anyone else. We have catered for many celebrities and artists over the years and I feel it's important that their privacy is respected.' Pam Cooney of the Grapevine wine shop said she had never seen Enya in all her years working in Dalkey. 'I've never seen her out and about, and we get many stars either going to the pub or enjoying a meal in the village,' she said. 'Nevertheless, if Enya doesn't choose to go out in public much, that's her business alone. She's had an incredibly successful career and deserves to spend her time as she wishes.' Louie Krcho, a worker at the Roberts of Dalkey market, told The Sunday Times he had been a massive fan since he was a child. 'I've been listening to her for as long as I can remember and I'm always hopeful that I'd see her around,' he said. 'Unfortunately, she's not come across my path yet but I would be sure to leave her alone as I know she's a very private person.' A young man who worked in a nearby restaurant said that, despite having lived in Dalkey all his life, he had never heard of Enya. 'I like my music, but I'm drawing a blank on who she is,' he said. 'Looking at a picture of her now I'm positive that I've never seen her in person or even on television.' • Why today's stars love Enya In 2022, Enya was seen at an event at Dublin City University celebrating the achievements of her sister Moya Brennan, who received an honorary doctorate. She was seen posing happily in several photographs with her sister and their mother, Baba Brennan, who is now in her nineties. Last year, a photograph emerged on social media of Enya having a meal with friends and some of her siblings at a restaurant in Monte Carlo. She sat the head of the table wearing a red summer dress. That was the singer's last known public appearance and, although little information could be gathered from the images alone, it was enough to satisfy fans that Enya is surrounded by her friends and family.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Julie Waters, Evan Dyal Launch Production and Finance Outfit Watermark Media
Veteran exec Julie Waters and Evan Dyal have launched the production and finance company Watermark Media, which is already co-financing and producing a slate of five projects since its 2024 founding. Watermark is behind the Molly Gordon feature Oh, Hi! which launched out of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where Sony Pictures Classics picked it up. Other Watermark projects include Joel Alfonso Vargas' Made Bills to Pay, which also premiered at Sundance before heading to the Berlin Film Festival. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jennifer Lopez's 'Kiss of the Spider Woman' Nearing Deal With Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate Producer Christine Vachon Has a Pick for the Future Home of the Sundance Film Festival 'Khartoum' Review: Experimental Doc Poignantly Captures the Crisis in Sudan Waters is a longtime executive whose tenure at Temple Hill Entertainment included producing the critically acclaimed FX series Dave and worked on Hulu series Love, Victor and The Other Black Girl. She launches Watermark after overseeing film and television at Rachel Brosnahan's Scrap Paper Pictures. Dyal co-founded Watermark after a career in real estate development. Joining Waters and Dyal are COO and partner Aaron Millberg, overseeing business development and operations, and development executive Lexi Kroll. Millberg spent eight years at UTA, working as a talent agent in the endorsements division, before a position as the head of creator and content commerce at e-commerce company Canal. After starting her career in the lit department at Brillstein Entertainment, Kroll held posts at director Jonathan Levine's production company Megamix and Scrap Paper Pictures. 'Watermark Media is built on a foundation of innovation and inclusivity, and further solidifies our commitment to creating culturally significant, fresh and diverse narratives from rising filmmakers,' said Waters and Dyal. 'With Oh, Hi! and Mad Bills to Pay leading the way, we're thrilled to share these films with the world and continue supporting creatives who are shaping the future of entertainment.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
2 of the best 3 beer gardens in America are in Michigan, according to USA TODAY readers
Two Michigan breweries' beer gardens were named among the best in the nation by USA TODAY readers. Hop Lot Brewing Co. in Suttons Bay came in at No. 2 in the top 10 ranking of best beer gardens in America for 2025, according to USA TODAY's 10BEST Readers' Choice Awards, while Watermark Brewing Co. in Stevensville is right behind at No. 3. Hop Lot, coming in at No. 2, is a northern Michigan, family-friendly brewery and restaurant with a massive beer garden in the woods. "Embracing its Northern Michigan roots, Hop Lot Brewing's beer garden invites guests to warm up around the campfire or relax at a picnic table while enjoying their brews," USA TODAY says. "In winter, you can even reserve your own igloo! Hop Lot was established in 2015 as a family-friendly brewery and offers a tap list of around a dozen traditional ales." Watermark, coming in at No. 3, "has been a community cornerstone since its founding in 2016. Built on a passion for creating exceptional craft beer and unforgettable experiences, Watermark features a sprawling beer garden designed for relaxation and connection," USA TODAY says. "The outdoor space boasts lush greenery, comfortable seating, fire pits, and open-air views perfect for gatherings of all sizes. Inside, the modern yet welcoming taproom serves as the hub for an ever-evolving lineup of meticulously crafted beers. Focused on fostering local connections, Watermark Brewing Co. partners with area food trucks and encourages guests to bring their own bites to enjoy alongside their beverages." Here's how Hop Lot and Watermark and the rest of the Top 10 ranked: Henmick Farm & Brewery: Delaware, Ohio : Suttons Bay, Michigan Stevensville, Michigan : Raleigh, North Carolina : Sebring, Florida : Lancaster, Ohio : Charlotte, North Carolina : Atlantic City, New Jersey : Fredericksburg, Texas : Spokane, Washington The USA TODAY 10BEST Readers' Choice Awards highlight the very best in travel, food + drink, and lifestyle. Every week, USA TODAY 10BEST invites a panel of industry experts to nominate their favorite points of interest and attractions across a wide range of categories. 10BEST editors then vet these nominations and select a final set of nominees to be presented to the voting public for a period of four weeks. Follow the Detroit Free Press on Instagram (@detroitfreepress), TikTok (@detroitfreepress), YouTube (@DetroitFreePress), Twitter/X (@freep), and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook (@detroitfreepress). Contact Amy Huschka: ahuschka@ or follow her on Twitter/X (@aetmanshuschka). Stay connected and stay informed. Become a subscriber. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2 of America's best beer gardens are in Michigan
New York Times
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Venice in Winter, With a Poet as Our Guide
By 2 a.m. we were happily lost again. Dimly illuminated arches and doorways reflected off the green canal waters. My daughter, Vivian, 16, and I were on a lion hunt in Venice, an annual occurrence for six years now. If I felt slightly silly coming to this ancient tourist trap every year, I was comforted that arguably the world's coolest tourist, the exiled Russian, Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodsky, did the same thing for 17 winters, resulting in what many regard as the bible of travelogues, 'Watermark,' published in 1992: 135 pages of vivid, profound, often funny impressionistic musings on the city Brodsky called 'the greatest masterpiece our species ever produced.' Brodsky's fascination with Venice was colored by his childhood in St. Petersburg (then named Leningrad), another city of canals, where he'd lived in a communal apartment on a bustling street lined with czarist palaces. 'I, too, once lived in a city where cornices used to court clouds with statues,' he wrote. My own attraction was shaped by a Danish childhood next to the languorous waters of the Baltic Sea. As for Viv? Strolling the city is the only endurance sport we can both participate in as equals and where the setting trumps her phone screen. She is a warrior princess here. Venice recently made headlines for charging a 5 euro admission fee to stem the Disneyesque hordes of summer fanny packers. (The fee is supposed to double in April.) But on this March night the city was as tranquil and evocative as an ornate tomb. A whiff of frozen seaweed blew off the Adriatic. Viv mischievously pulled out her cellphone, but we use map apps only as a last resort. 'Not yet,' I said, and she put it back into her pocket. We climbed the steps of yet another one of the city's more than 450 bridges and peered around the next alley leading to a square where, lit up like an alter, was our lion. The marble beast called the 'Piraeus Lion' was plundered from Athens's main harbor in 1687 and was as familiar to Viv and me as the family dog. It has become a touchstone for many of our walks. The star of four mismatched marble lions guarding the Arsenale gate to the city's ancient fleet, the beast's ferocity was mitigated by our knowledge that runes were graffitied into its flanks by marauding Vikings — our kinsmen! I suppressed the usual desire to drone on about the lion's 23-century history. Why kill intuitive beauty with data gleaned from tourist books? The real pleasure of wandering in Venice is to drown our egos in undefinable grandeur. 'The city is narcissistic enough to turn your mind into an amalgam, unburdening it of its depths,' Brodsky wrote. 'After a two-week stay — even at off-season rates — you become both broke and selfless, like a Buddhist monk.' 'The imperative of cold and brief daylight' Throughout the 1960s, Brodsky's free-spirited personality and verses got him into hot water with the Soviet authorities, who subjected him to increasingly messy persecutions. The relatively unknown poet grew into an international cause célèbre until finally, in 1972, the Soviets booted him from the country with little more than a small leather suitcase in which he packed two bottles of vodka. He landed in Ann Arbor, Mich., at the University of Michigan, where he continued writing prolifically as a poet in residence. When he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987, the charismatic writer became a literary pop star, packing lecture halls around the world with his melodic readings. 'Watermark' opens with Brodsky arriving for the first time in Venice's main train station in 1972, hoping to seduce a Russian acquaintance. She rebuffed him, but he instead became seduced by the city whose smells, surfaces, moods and tastes he would detail as tenderly as a lover's. 'Love is an affair between a reflection and its object,' Brodsky wrote. 'This is in the end what brings one back to this city.' He returned almost every winter, when he could enjoy Venice unclouded by tourists. 'This is the season low on color and big on the imperative of cold and brief daylight,' he wrote. 'Everything is harder and more stark.' 'Part damp oxygen, part coffee and prayers' In the bohemian Dorsoduro neighborhood on the south bank of the Grand Canal, where some bars display 'No Tourist' signs, I met the American expatriate painter Robert Morgan, 82, to whom Brodsky dedicated 'Watermark.' After half a century in Venice, Mr. Morgan still works in his studio every day, painting sky blue cityscapes. He was introduced to Brodsky when both men were in their late 20s, creating a bond that lasted to the grave. 'We took to each other because we were both single exiles in love with this place,' Mr. Morgan told me. 'We walked and talked, often all night, without any big purpose, although we did tend to bump into a lot of women, cocktails and cicchetti.' Cicchetti are Venice's version of tapas, which absolve Venice of two centuries of mediocre tourist restaurants. These snacks were also integral to Viv's and my nightly foraging routine, where instead of dining at restaurants, we wandered bar to bar nibbling fresh cod, cottony finger sandwiches, pickled vegetables and other bites to be walked off until the next worthy spot. 'Joseph joked that wherever he ate here, he knew he was eating better than the Soviet Council of People's Commissars, who had given him so much trouble,' Mr. Morgan said. Mr. Morgan invited me up to his flat, with its bright paintings and flowers, tended to by his sparkling writer wife, Ewa, 52. Tea was served, gossip and stories shared. Brodsky's playful spirit animated his octogenarian friend. 'You could see him observing everything behind the cigarette smoke and Irish whiskey,' Mr. Morgan said. 'Always making mental notes even when entertaining an entire table.' I wandered 10 minutes east of the Morgans' apartment to a dead-end street, Calle Querini, where, at No. 252, a salmon-colored house was the setting for a provocative literary encounter in 'Watermark.' A marble plaque above the narrow front door explained that this was where the American poet Ezra Pound lived with his mistress, Olga Rudge, while broadcasting Fascist propaganda to the United States during World War II. Brodsky wrote about squeezing through this doorway in 1977, five years after Pound's death, with his girlfriend, the writer Susan Sontag, for tea with Rudge, guarded by a three-foot phallic bust of Pound. Although Brodsky had translated Pound to Russian in his youth, Rudge's pro-Mussolini utterances and the oppressive bust had Sontag and Brodsky hastily retreating back down this tiny street into the night. The bust is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. One morning after an all-night walk, Viv and I emerged on Piazza San Marco, Venice's main square. The pale winter sun rose across the lagoon and the weak rays unexpectedly exploded off the five domes of San Marco, turning them into lighthouses against the leaden sky. Brodsky described winter mornings here as 'part damp oxygen, part coffee and prayers,' and sure enough, the bells in the campanile began tolling for morning Mass while waiters pulled out tables and chairs from the surrounding cafes. This was our last stop, as it usually was for Brodsky, who often ended up lounging on these very chairs with a cigarette and an espresso. Venice, forever Brodsky's chain smoking and lifelong poor health felled him in New York at the age of 55. His Italian wife, Maria Sozzani, whom he had met just six years earlier when she was a student at one of his lectures, arranged for him to be buried on the cemetery island of San Michele just north of Venice. The funeral was not without one last drama in this dramatic man's life. Mr. Morgan told me that he and Roberto Calasso, Brodsky's Italian publisher, went to the cemetery before the cortege floated across the lagoon and discovered the grave was adjoining none other than Pound's. 'Roberto and I told the gravediggers there's no way he could be buried there, and they hastily found a spot a few yards away. They were still digging when the coffin arrived.' On our last evening, Viv and I jumped on a vaporetto and crossed over to San Michele, whose cypress trees towered over the island's walls like ghost sails. 'I knew what water feels like being caressed by water,' Brodsky wrote sensually about sailing to this island of death. He often tarried here among the many exiled Russians' tombs, notably the composer Igor Stravinsky and the ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, where dancers still leave their worn slippers on his gravestone. Viv and I wandered over to the familiar rounded white marble headstone at the edge of the Protestant section, where two Ukrainian women in miniskirts despite the cold were taking selfies. Brodsky seduces even from the grave. San Michele closed at 6 p.m. and we headed back to the tiny jetty beyond the cemetery gates as Venice's night lights set the medieval towers aglow across the lagoon. The evening fog danced across the walls and around the cypress trees like ballerinas. One of San Michele's cemetery cats approached Viv while we were waiting for the vaporetto, which reminded me of a line from 'Watermark': 'I would like to live my next life in Venice. To be a cat there, anything, even a rat, but always in Venice.' Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
