Zoomer Magazine April/May 2022

A WEEK INTO Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, I called up my friend John-Paul Ricchio. I had seen his Instagram posts of outrage and despair, with information about protests, and links to donate. He was also sharing memories of a 1991 trip his mother, Marianne Ricchio (née Eurke), and grandmother, Mary Stephanie Eurke (née Wozney) and grandfather, Michael Eurke, had taken. It was their first visit to Ukraine. One photograph shows the group in front of the family’s ancestral home in the village of Horodnytsia in the Ternopil region of Western Ukraine. His grandmother is meeting her father’s sister, Stephanie — holding the traditional greeting of bread and salt — who is the last living link to J.P.’s great-grandfather, Dmytro Wozney, who made his way to Canada in 1913 as…

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY is being hailed as a hero after the 44-year-old former actor refused to surrender his country – and any hope for democracy – to Russia. More accustomed to Dancing With the Stars than sparring in the geopolitical ring (former U.S. president Donald Trump, 75, blocked military aid to Ukraine in 2019 in an attempt to bully Zelenskyy into digging up dirt on Joe Biden; Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24), Zelenskyy is two generations removed from the Second World War. When Putin said he wanted to “denazify” the country, Zelenskyy – who is Jewish – was incredulous, since his grandfather fought the Nazis for the Soviet army, and three great-uncles were executed by Germans who occupied Ukraine. The world has drawn…

By Kim Honey UP Nailing It When Fleetwood Mac first made it big, drummer Mick Fleetwood dressed in open-necked shirts and wide-leg jeans, but the 74-year-old has a trippier look these days as a model for Pleasing, Harry Styles’ beauty and lifestyle brand. Fleetwood loves the psychedelic hues of the new Shroom Boom collection, saying the nail polish reminds him of the Summer of Love days, when he used to sport the odd manicure. Well, who are we to keep you down? New Wordle Order A San Francisco man was shocked to discover his Wordle! app was getting 50,000 downloads a day, until he realized it was one punctuation mark away from the wildly popular New York Times brainteaser that has millions staving off cognitive decline by madly typing five-letter…

MUSIC HAS BEEN a pandemic salve, but, in the coming months, fans will finally be able to enjoy many of their favourite artists in person again. Among the performers touring Canada on the strength of new albums in 2022 are Cali funk-rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers, who drop the Rick Rubin-produced Unlimited Love (April 1); it reunites them with prodigal guitarist John Frusciante, who’d left the group for a decade. Former White Stripes front man and Detroit native Jack White, who’s been sporting turquoise locks to match the record promo, releases Fear of the Dawn (April 8), a hard rock banger and the first of two albums he has scheduled this year. Effervescent New Orleans’ ambassador Trombone Shorty delivers Lifted (April 29), a set of funk, soul and psychedelic…

THEY CALL IT the “Martha Mitchell Effect.” An actual term in psychology circles, it’s the misdiagnosis of patients as delusional when, in fact, they are telling the truth. And the woman who bears its name is set, again, to get her close-up, played by none other than Julia Roberts in the Starz limited series Gaslit (April 24), which is based on the U.S. podcast “Slow Burn.” Mitchell was the canary in the coal mine in the time of the Watergate scandal (1972-74). The socialite wife of President Richard Nixon’s loyal attorney general, John Mitchell, she was the first person to publicly speak out about the president’s crimes. She was an unlikely whistleblower, and her decision prompted no end of blowback. Calling her an unreliable narrator, Nixon’s allies alleged she had…

THIS SPRING MARKS a big birthday for The Godfather, which premiered 50 years ago in March 1972 at Loew’s State Theatre in New York City, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of all time and spawning the better-than-the-original sequel, The Godfather Part II. But fans know all that. We don’t know, perhaps, the dramatic turmoil behind Francis Ford Coppola’s camera that almost sabotaged the film’s (three-months-late) release. For that, there is a pair of tea-spilling takes this year. Francis and The Godfather, starring Oscar Isaac as Coppola and Jake Gyllenhaal as Paramount exec Robert Evans, is currently in production. While fans await its release, they can watch The Offer on the small screen, a new 10-episode biographical miniseries from Paramount+ chronicling the near-firing of Coppola, writer Mario Puzo’s public screaming…