Fader

The thing you didn't know about the intrepid FADER magazine staff is that, even after a long day's work spent spelunking the caves of mind rock and breakbeats, we leave the posh digs of Midtown South and go to karate practice (Will Welch), rollerblade on the pier (Nick Barat), intern at Marie Claire (Eric Ducker-"wanting to better understand the female mind"), eat chicken (Chioma Nnadi), work on our lats (Phil Bicker), grow orchids (intern CJ) and try to figure out the abacus (yours truly). All that's meant to say is that we've got interests that even this juicy fruit we call The FADER can't fit within its pages. And so, every year we decide to shake things up a bit, stretch our legs and do a Film Issue. Most years, this involves a lot of Whoppers consumption and trips to the Hole in the Wall video store, but this year we bucked tradition and put some actual factual actors on our covers! In terms of General Interest Level, actor/musician/daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg is like baby Suri over in Paris (only grown and unrelated to alien seed)-she's one of those mysterious, intriguing types for which the phrase "a certain je ne sais quoi" was invented. We embraced the cliches, boned up on her recent film roles, checked out CG's star-studded debut album and caught a whiff of Charlotte mania over in gay Paree. Chiwetel Ejiofor has always been one of those screen gems who steals the shit out of every scene he's in-whether as a Nigerian doctor sucked into the world of organ smuggling or as a brassy drag cabaret singer named Lola (that's what the Tinseltown types call "range," folks). He also has an impenetrable, gentlemanly air about him-writer Anuj Desai hoped some of that would rub off on him as he got the scoop.

We also packed the ish with a truly epic series of interviews about The Wire, which is easily one of the most sophisticated and dynamic shows on TV-i.e. it's so good we can't believe it's, like, actually on TV. Eric Ducker talked to creator David Simon about his literary approach to telling a story about "the America we've paid for, and the America we're getting." It's intense. Alongside all that, you'll get our now-traditional roundup of hot video directors and an extended grip of newsy itsy bitsies about filmish things. And for all you die-hard music types, you can take three deep breaths, because there's also plenty of tunery for you to geek on inside-from Deep's Punjabi hip-hop to the Blow's indie club, 'tis the season of hybrid machinations. We got another banger installment of the mag right around the corner, so stay tuned-in the meantime, we'll be taking an all-staff retreat to learn the Brazilian art of capoeira. See you in December!

ALEX WAGNER