Dmitry Sychev
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010I spoke with this talented player who has been described as the ‘most exciting young Russian player since Vladimir Beschastnykh’, and found him to be a modest young man with a pleasant smile.
Born in Omsk, Dmitry Sychev comes from a sporting family, his mother a track and field athlete and his father a football player and later trainer. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that Dmitry was destined to become a football star himself, though he combined this passion with ice hockey until the age of ten, when he made the decision to specialise in football.
It would turn out to be a good choice, for after debuting with Spartak Tambov he was signed by Spartak Moscow, before moving to Olympique Marseille in France and, since 2004, back to Russia with Lokomotive Moscow. I met up with him after his team’s training session in the Marbella sun. (more…)
The man who rejected Chrissie Hynde as lead singer, gave lifts in his ice cream van to Elvis Costello and above all, co-wrote such anthems as ‘Golden Brown’, ‘No More Heroes’ and ‘Peaches’, is back. Hugh Cornwell, for years the face of The Stranglers, is hitting the charts again.
He’s back in Marbella this summer, one of those performers whose silky sound just seems to fit right into the setting. Think of it; a sultry summer’s night at the Puente Romano Tennis Club, and George Benson’s unique blend of jazz, pop, R&B and romance rising into the air against a backdrop of palm trees and La Concha Mountain. No wonder it has become such a mutual love affair, this was the sort of place his music was made for. The artist himself says it is one of the most beautiful locations he has played at, “It has to do with the topography of the region, the sunshine and beautiful seaside.” 
Fátima Quesada was scarcely out of school when she left her hometown Madrid to search for artistic inspiration among the bewitching monuments of old Granada. Thrilled by the ancient mosaics of the Alhambra, she developed a fascination for the mysteries of ceramics and promptly enrolled in classes. The next year was spent learning the basics, such as the physical and chemical characteristics of clay, production and colouring techniques, and artistic design. It was a formative year, marked most of all by her personal discovery of ceramic art, for it was when she moved to the Alpujarras that Fátima’s training commenced in earnest. “I was really fortunate to come into contact with so many outstanding experts—in the Alpujarras of all places. From Japanese master craftsmen to former NASA scientists probing the possible applications of clay ceramic products, I learnt more from watching them, talking and working in teaching courses with them than I did from official courses.” 