My friend Panos Papadopoulos, whom most of you will know as the founder of the swimwear label Panos Emporio, and for most of its life its designer and creative force, has been getting acclaim for his craft beers.
After walking away from his label and opening a restaurant in Göteborg, where he resides, Panos developed two beers, the Eros lager and the Agapi IPA as exclusives for the Panos Panos Tavern.
I had the good fortune to sample them when at the Tavern. Agapi is light with honey notes; Eros is a stronger stout with spicy hints. Both, as you can expect from Panos if you ever looked at the names of his swimwear designs, pay respect to his Greek heritage. The words reflect different aspects of love: Agapi for an unreserved, selfless love, Eros for passion and romance.
A recent event in Sweden netted him some press coverage and he could be on to another winner that will go further than he initially anticipated. It’s no surprise to me—I sought out Panos in the late 1990s after being intrigued by his designs, so his work has always travelled well, in my opinion.
I might have mentioned to our wonderful New York beauty director Jo Gair that I am a huge Dick van Dyke fan; regardless, she sent me a link to this video from Coldplay: a ‘director’s cut’ of ‘All My Love’ starring Dick van Dyke, who turns 99 on Friday, and Chris Martin. The video was directed by Spike Jonze and Mary Wigmore, and opens at van Dyke’s Malibu home.
Members of the van Dyke family also appear, including Dick’s wife Arlene Silver, his children, including Barry van Dyke, and grandchildren, plus clips and images from his career, including The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins.
In the video, van Dyke does address that, at age 98, he is facing the likelihood of passing. ‘I’m acutely aware that I’m, you know, could go any day now. But, I don’t know why it doesn’t concern me. I’m not afraid of it. I have that feeling, totally against anything intellectual, that I’m going to be all right.’
He also counts himself lucky. ‘I think I’m one of those lucky people who got to do for a living what I would’ve done anyway. You think how lucky I am, I got to do what I do: play and act silly!’
An extra video will be released on the 13th to coincide with van Dyke’s birthday.
The earworm since seeing the Dick van Dyke video is not the Coldplay song, but the theme for The Dick Van Dyke Show, with the Morey Amsterdam lyrics.
Speaking of friends in Sweden, Stefan Engeseth’s Homo Stupido: Recycling our Stupidity to Save Our Planet has been released. Stefan’s been writing this for eight years and I had the privilege of previewing the foreword all those years ago. When we caught up in Stockholm in the summer he was still working on it. And now, it’s officially out. A review will follow but in the meantime, you can order a copy here. It is also available on Amazon, but why not go directly to the publisher? Chapter 1 is available as a free download.
Jack Yan is founder and publisher of Lucire.
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