Lifestyle
A Nail Art Neophyte Sits Down With a Manicurist
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When I set out to write an article about the New York-based, Instagram-famous nail artist Mei Kawajiri, I had never gotten a professional manicure before. Or, really, any manicure at all.
My mom — a neat freak if you’ve ever met one — was opposed to manicures on principle, for the fact that nail polish stains. So, growing up, I would go to a friend’s house and secretly have her paint my nails, only to use polish remover to scrub away the evidence.
Then in high school, I played softball, and, well, I don’t know if you’ve ever jammed your fingers into a dusty leather glove and snared a line drive, but let’s just say manicures and softball do not exactly mix.
Still, nails have always been an object of fascination for me, whether in the form of Sigourney Weaver’s purply-pink rattlesnake venom-spiked talons in the movie “Holes” or Cynthia Erivo’s forest-green ombré acrylics in “Wicked.”
Last year, I stumbled upon the Instagram page of Ms. Kawajiri, who has created elaborate custom nail looks for stars such as Cardi B, Ariana Grande and Bad Bunny. There were nails with hand-drawn portraits of anime heroines. Six-inch acrylic sets embedded with jewels and lace. Tips affixed with 3-D miniatures of asparagus, French fries, hair bows — even dirty socks.
These weren’t just manicures. They were works of art.
So when Dan Saltzstein, the deputy editor on the Projects and Collaborations team at The Times, approached me in January to ask if I had any ideas for an upcoming Art of Craft series about specialists whose work rises to the level of art, I had the perfect candidate.
The articles in the series break down an often-complex creation process into easily digestible steps: the nitty-gritty of exactly how someone fashions ornate, $5,000 saddles with a six-year wait time, for instance, or how an avant-garde balloon artist patiently coaxes stubborn latex into ephemeral inflatable sculptures.
I had originally been set to attend a photo shoot in mid-February with Ms. Kawajiri and our photographer and videographer, Sasha Arutyunova, but my grandfather died (he was 95), and I had to miss the shoot to attend his memorial service.
So I scheduled an interview with Ms. Kawajiri for the following week, and was faced with the challenge of writing an article detailing a three-hour technical process without having observed it. There were different types of nail tips? Of varying sharpness? This was a revelation to me.
But over the course of our 90-minute conversation, Ms. Kawajiri walked me through her tools — the brush with a tip as thin as a strand of hair that she uses to create elaborate hand-drawn designs on nails, the eye shadow she sometimes opts for in lieu of gel polish to fill in her finest 3-D shapes, the name of the 3-D gel she uses to sculpt miniature croissants and suitcases.
I asked about how things worked, or how the steps unfolded, when I couldn’t fill in the blanks. What is a base coat? What is a topcoat? What is the difference between a gel manicure and a regular one?
Ms. Kawajiri was very patient. And, in a way, my reporting required more sustained concentration than if I had watched her work.
It was all part of a conundrum for journalists that comes up often: Is it better to be knowledgeable about a given topic, enabling you to ask informed or nuanced questions, or to be a neophyte, coming to a story fresh, the way many readers do?
I’m sure an artistic nails enthusiast, or someone who has had even one manicure, would have asked more about specific techniques. But my inexperience ultimately — I hope — made for a clearer and more accessible article for readers who also didn’t know the first thing about nail art.
I came away with an appreciation for the artistry that goes into creating mind-boggling levels of detail on a minuscule canvas. I listened as Ms. Kawajiri explained her fascination with nails as a form of self-expression. I loved that she found inspiration everywhere, including in her real life, drawing from objects as mundane as her baby’s bottle.
I was reminded that no question is too small to document the exacting process it takes to create something deceptively complex. I’m learning alongside the reader, so any questions I have are ones my audience will likely share.
That’s one of the great joys of journalism — I write about people and places I never would have imagined, and I’m often surprised by the level of effort that goes into seemingly simple creations, whether that’s a poem, the Oscars red carpet or a set of potato chip-inspired nails.
And don’t worry, mom — my own nails are still boring, pink and clean as ever.
Alysa Liu, one of the skaters representing the U.S. in the team event, practices at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Monday.
Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
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Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
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Olympic figure skating kicks off Friday with the team competition, in which the U.S. is heavily favored to hold off rival Japan and defend its gold medal from 2022.
The team event is relatively new, making its debut in the 2014 Sochi Games. It pits the world’s 10 top-ranked countries against each other, via representatives in each of the four skating disciplines: men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance.
Countries get points (1-10) depending on how they score in the first two events (short program and rhythm dance), and the top five move on to the final round (free skate and free dance).
The main battle to watch is between the U.S. and Japan, who finished as the top two in 2022 after Russia was disqualified over a doping case involving one of its skaters. The absence of Russia — still banned from the Games over its war in Ukraine — means that the third medal is somewhat up for grabs.
“There are so many countries vying for that bronze spot,” Canadian ice dancer Piper Gilles said. “There’s Georgia, there’s us, everybody’s pushing for it.”
Part of the suspense is finding out who each country will choose to compete in each category, which is usually announced about 24 hours in advance.
It’s not as simple as just picking the top scorer in each discipline. It requires some strategizing, since anyone who competes in the team event will still have to take the ice two more times in their own category over the next two weeks.
“It’s all going to come down to the decisions that the athletes and the people in charge make,” U.S. skater Amber Glenn said earlier this week. “We are going to prioritize both physical and mental health.”
Take the men, for example. Their free skate closes out the team event on Sunday, just two days before their first day of individual competition.
So countries have to decide whether their strongest skater should compete in both programs of the team event, or skip one of them to get some rest in between. Each country can swap up to two (out of four) entries midway through the competition.
The U.S. has an advantage here, in part because of the sheer size of its 16-person team, having secured maximum quota spots in men’s, women’s and ice dance. The next biggest teams, Japan and Canada, have 12 people each.
“This team in particular is so deep, so talented, and has a great opportunity for a gold medal,” U.S. ice dancer Evan Bates said earlier this week, before the roster was even announced.
Here’s what we know so far.
Who is competing when?
Friday opens with the three shorter programs in women’s, pairs and ice dance.
The U.S. has chosen Alysa Liu — the 20-year-old reigning world champion and two-time Olympian — to compete in the women’s category, at least in the first part of the team event. Earlier this week, when asked whether women might split that category, Liu told reporters “we all signed an NDA for that!”
Her main competition is three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto, who won bronze in 2022 in addition to helping Japan win silver in the team event.
In pairs, U.S. is putting forward 2024 national champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea. They face a steep challenge from Japan’s Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi, two-time Olympians and two-time world champions.
Representing the U.S. in ice dance are powerhouses Madison Chock and Evan Bates, reigning seven-time national champions who helped Team USA win gold in this very event in 2022. They are hoping for a repeat this year, which marks their fourth Olympics together.
“Any time you get the opportunity to compete at the Olympics, you want to cherish it, so there’s nothing but positives for us here,” Chock said earlier this week.
What’s next?
The team event continues on Saturday with the last ice dance program — the free dance — and the first men’s event, the short program.
The U.S. has chosen gold medal favorite Ilia Malinin, who could become the first person to ever land a quadruple axel on Olympic ice.
But it’s not clear whether Malinin will take that risk as early as the team event, especially since he doesn’t need it in order to top the leaderboard. He won U.S. championships in January by more than 50 points even without the quad axel, playing it somewhat safe (if you consider a backflip on ice safe) as he broke in new skates.
Saturday is also when we’ll find out who will represent Team USA in the final half of team competition, in other words, which two athletes will sub out. Sunday concludes with the free skate — the longer, more creative program — in pairs, women’s and men’s.
On Sunday, once all the points are tallied, the first figure skating medals of these Games will be given out. And there will be more to come — the first ice dance competitions start the very next day.
Rep. Sara Jacobs
High School Drama Never Ends … In Congress!!!
Published
TMZ.com
“You can’t sit with us” isn’t just a “Mean Girls” quote … it’s apparently a very real rule in Congress … and Rep. Sara Jacobs says she’s had to use it IRL!
TMZ caught up with the Democratic California congresswoman in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, and she spilled the tea on Capitol Hill being basically one giant high school … with cliques and cool kids and unofficial rules.
Watch the video … she takes us on the underground Congressional subway train and breaks down how the House floor’s lack of assigned seating doesn’t mean you can just plop down anywhere you like … because groups like “Penn Corner” and “California Row” already have their unofficial spots locked down like a school cafeteria.
Yeah, the rules are so strict she says she literally had to tell a newbie that very day to get up and move.
Sara goes full yearbook mode too, breaking down how Congress mirrors high school in every way — orientation for new members, lottery-style office assignments like dorm rooms, clubs to join, the whole deal. So if high school was your peak? Congrats … there’s a sequel on Capitol Hill!
Reshona Landfair’s memoir tells the story of the then-teenaged “Jane Doe” seen in a video that led to her testimony in singer R. Kelly’s trials on child pornography and other charges.
Grand Central Publishing/Courtesy of Hachette Book Group.
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Grand Central Publishing/Courtesy of Hachette Book Group.
Reshona Landfair met R. Kelly when she was a pre-teen in 1996. Starstruck, along with the rest of her community, Landfair says she fell victim to his grooming tactics, followed by years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. When an infamous videotape of Kelly abusing Landfair became public, she described feeling isolated, subject to the whims of her abuser, and known only in the courts and to the world as “Jane Doe.”
A photo of the author, Reshona Landfair.
Jei Storm
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Jei Storm
When asked how she felt after the tape surfaced publicly, Landfair told All Things Considered host Juana Summers, “It was everything that I hear about prison.”
“It was very traumatizing. It was very hurtful and lonely,” Landfair added.
The video was shown to the juries in two of Kelly’s trials on child pornography charges: first, in 2008, which ended in his acquittal, and again in 2022, which resulted in Kelly’s conviction.
Landfair’s new memoir, Who’s Watching Shorty? Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse, details her turbulent adolescence and escape from a long cycle of exploitation, as she seeks to be a voice for other survivors.
Listen to the full interview by clicking play on the blue box above.
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