A lot has happened at Aston since then, but it is reassuring to know that the company has lived up to the promise of the super SUV, which can now be seen and bought in the cities of the Gulf.
But it has not let those problems distract it from the main job — designing, manufacturing and selling top-class vehicles that have a distinctive British flavor, as well as an edge of excitement and — even — danger that other elite marks do not possess.
In the DBX, you could imagine Mrs Bond dropping the kids at school and doing a supermarket shop before handing the keys back to James for a spot of clandestine espionage.
The one that I was lucky enough to test in Dubai was a real head-turner.
James might want just a little a bit more but that’s a minor quibble — and in any case he could flick it into Sport+ mode when in hot pursuit of a villain.
The DBX starts at AED837,000 , but extras — courtesy of Aston’s Q department — will probably make it a near AED1 million investment.
All that’s needed to attend the virtual workout class was a delicious snack and a comfortable outfit.
“The bralette tops and tight leggings and rooms full of mirrors and focus on definition, shape and size is just too much for me.
“It is disgusting that vanity has taken over exercise and that you’re made to feel like to even be able to exercise you have to show up thin and toned in revealing clothes.
LONDON: Thanks to a scarcity of official records, the story of Yasuke – an African samurai who fought for Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga – remains something of a mystery.
Still haunted by the assassination of Nobunaga is a taciturn hero, and while the story of his journey from slave to samurai – told in flashbacks during the main narrative – is backed up by real-life accounts, the plot of “Yasuke” doesn’t concern itself with such empirical details.
For one thing, Yasuke’s skin color causes much consternation among the people he meets – but those same characters don’t even flinch at a quick-talking robot, a 10ft warrior bear or a giant battle between telekinetic sorcerers.
BEIRUT: Tania Saleh is not generally known for mincing her words, whether in casual conversation or in song.
“It’s about my reflections and observations.
“The way that men see a woman after divorce is basically as fair game — like you’re willing to settle for anything and be with anyone,” she explains.
Her native Lebanon has, for the past 18 months, spiraled through a caustic mixture of socio-economic and political crises, compounded by decades-long governmental corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Because of Lebanon’s problems, a lot of men have left to work abroad, leaving many women either single or unmarried or separated from their partners,” she says.
“10 A.D.” is Saleh’s fifth LP and her third on Kirkelig Kulturverksted , the Norwegian label founded by producer and lyricist Erik Hillestad in 1974.
“We wanted to produce music in an honest way, as a tribute to our influences in rock, folk, funk and jazz,” Saleh recalls.
Saleh candidly admits that after the dissolution of her marriage to Tohme, with whom she has two sons, she no longer had access to her support system.
This led Saleh to reconnect with an old passion of hers.
“I love Bob Dylan, but I don’t love that he’s had the same style for 70 years,” she says.
The realization of “10 A.D.” comprised an intricate process of arranging about half of the songs she had written with Dr.
Saleh sought advice from KKV, whose boss, Erik Hillestad, connected her with Øyvind Kristiansen, the Norwegian pianist, arranger, and composer.
The topic of divorce is certainly not Saleh’s only focus on the record.
I don’t know when my next album is going to be and what it’s going to look like.
An unorthodox rule for visitors to “Negus” — an audio-visual installation at Dubai’s The Third Line in collaboration with festival operator Sole — is that you have to have your phone locked away in a small pouch.
A pink-hued microbial landscape by Khorramian hangs near Khalifi’s spiritual painting of a white center, surrounded by an abundance of greens, pinks, trees and flowers, a detail that fits Bey’s brief whistling sounds in the 2015-produced recording.
A large video projection of changing images externalizes some of Bey’s inner thoughts regarding the state of the world, focusing particularly on materialism.
But while the music is lyrically thought-provoking, it is rarely complimented by the selected artworks and without that connection it’s questionable how effective the installation can be.