“I don’t really believe in countries anymore. I think they’re an illusion,” says the fearless English activist and comedian DAVID HOYLE in our new issue; it comes back to the people in power and their desire to “manipulate us to make us hate each other and become violently nationalistic.” Rings true in this utterly depressing week dominated by bad news. DAVID’s story is on p. 144-157 and also online. ■ “I haven’t taken a major hallucinogenic in a long time,” he says in the transfixing piece by DOUGLAS GREENWOOD. “It’s probably due, you know?” Probably, yes.

The great new issue of BUTT (#35) comes out on Monday and can already be ordered (or bought in person at Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum, Amsterdam). In BUTT, unavoidably, a lot of political conversation, most notably with Tbilisian activist GIORGI KIKONISHVILI and the downfall of Georgia’s democracy. That’s the cover story, by ANTON SHEBETKO. Also:
■ the brilliant deejay HONEY DIJON
■ actor and pop sensation TROYE SIVAN
■ works by SADAO HASEGAWA
■ artist DEAN SAMESHIMA and his hole fascination
■ farmer PIERRE somewhere in France
■ host JÖRG in his allotment garden in Berlin
■ and lots more – so good!
■ Big thanks to BOTTEGA VENETA

The stream of interesting collaborations at MONCLER is pretty dazzling (there’s a great collection by RICK OWENS for MONCLER now in stores). ■ For the recent issue of Fantastic Man, Amsterdam-based BLOMMERS/SCHUMM photographed this down-filled jacket. It's from MONCLER’s collaboration with LOVEFROM, which is the enterprise of JONY IVE, the legendary designer behind pretty much every APPLE product that we know. ■ The technical sophistication of this jacket is of course spectacular, with magnets to attach to an outer layer (a field jacket, a parka or a poncho), and with special attention having gone into the acoustic “click” of said magnets. ■ You’ll have to take our word for it, because most sizes were sold out in no time.

A recommendation from a book-savvy friend, and indeed, this book is completely fascinating. ‘The Diaries of Mr Lucas’ is a biography based on the elaborate diaries that a certain Mr LUCAS kept his entire life. ■ A civil servant from London, Mr LUCAS spent most of his nights cruising, at a time when gay sex was still forbidden in the UK. The anxiety, the darkness, the constant risk of being entrapped by a cute policeman, the fair chance of losing one’s job and house, everything. ■ Mr LUCAS left his diaries to journalist HUGO GREENHALGH, who turned it into a brilliant page-turner of a life story. Including some fun confessions from GREENHALGH himself, and the sensible and sad observation that homosexuality may not be outlawed anymore in the UK, but the way the trans community is treated today isn’t so far off from what Mr LUCAS wrote about in the grim 1950s and 60s. Read it.

If the pandemic taught us one good thing, it’s the skill to convene digitally with colleagues from wherever we are. ■ I was in Maastricht, the Netherlands, on Friday last week, overlooking the river Maas, zooming with the entire Fantastic Man team. We are plotting our next issue #40, out in April 2025. It’ll be especially festive – we’ll be 20 years old!

Don’t forget to tell all your friends and family to subscribe to this newsletter, also because we’re giving away some highly desirable FAN T-shirts to people signing up this week – here.