text:
Photo by Dewey Nicks
Exploring Madrid With U.S. Ambassador James Costos
by Pilar Guzmán
With more Americans now traveling to Spain, U.S. Ambassador James Costos and interior designer Michael S. Smith are heading home on a high note, having put Madrid (back) on the Grand Tour.
News of the terrorist attack on the Brussels airport hits just as we're scheduled to set out on a tour of Madrid. U.S. Ambassador James Costos, who has the kind of blue eyes that seem to smile even when he doesn't and a natural polish in a navy V-neck sweater and jeans, is unperturbed—if concerned—by the constant ringing of the phones. "Spain is an incredibly safe country; they do a good job in collaboration with the law enforcement officials," he says, anticipating the security question that's on everybody's lips these days. "They have suffered their attacks before [Madrid's last was in 2004], and they've learned from those lessons. They have a very keen sense."
When we finally leave the U.S. embassy compound, Costos and his partner, Michael S. Smith, well into the third year of a three-year post, walk through the grand arcaded
Plaza Mayor with near childlike wonder, ducking into the
Mercado de San Miguel
Foodie paradise
Mercado de San Miguel to sample the paella from one of their favorite food stalls and later into a new hipster-style artisanal-cheese shop in the emerging neighborhood of Conde Duque. With his floppy blond schoolboy mane and burnt-orange corduroy suit, Smith, who is best known in the interiors world for designing and decorating the Obama White House, seems to relish his role as enfant terrible—playing id to Costos's superego, evangelizing for their adopted city with unscripted pith. "It's truly foreign," says Smith, who commutes from Los Angeles to Madrid for about a week each month, "like when you're a kid and you watch I Love Lucy go to Europe."
The two, who are personal friends of the Obamas, take the appointment seriously, spending their political and social capital with the express purpose of getting the world to pay attention to Spain. While he passes the bulk of his time in Madrid, Costos, a second-generation Greek-American from Massachusetts and a former marketing executive in both international entertainment and retail, travels back to the States every six weeks to court American investors in the entertainment and technology sectors. He organized the entrepreneurial summit IN³ and got industry leaders like Google's (now Alphabet's) Eric Schmidt and Chuck Robbins from Cisco to bring young American entrepreneurs to mix with their Spanish counterparts. "We create Silicon Valley in Madrid to give these entrepreneurs access to American examples, American capital," says Costos, who, at the 2015 conference, seated King Felipe VI next to Schmidt at the gala held at the new Google Madrid campus. "And then we show the Spanish institutions how we do it in America—how we inspire, and how we help small companies grow by investing in them, having access to credit."
By hosting ongoing cultural events—movie screenings, talks by American artists (photographer Catherine Opie was at the embassy that week), and LGBT events—Costos is focused on doing for Spain just what he did in his civilian life, when he oversaw global positioning, licensing, and communications for HBO and the Italian fashion brand Tod's: marketing to and for a culture that doesn't get as much play as its more popular neighbors, in hopes of attracting global business and tourism. "The exploitability of Italian film in the postwar years really contributed to this iconic Under the Tuscan Sun concept [for Italy]," says Smith of the lack of awareness around Spanish exports compared to Italy's. "But the quality of Spanish ceramics, wine, and olive oil is equal to and oftentimes better, more artisanal."
The view toward the Gran Vía from the roof terrace at Círculo de Bellas Artes.
"The Spaniards, they're just authentic," continues Costos, who has spent time in all 17 provinces. "They're not thinking, 'We want the global customer'; instead, it's, 'We're doing what we want because we do it the best.' " What he's talking about is places like the iconic restaurant and pastry shop Lhardy, which has been serving cups of chicken consommé from a silver dispenser since 1839. Its elaborate carved mahogany woodwork, gilded mirrors, and ornate glass cases filled with ham-and-cheese sandwiches and cakes make Lhardy ripe for Instagram sensationalism, but its proprietor discourages phone pics and, by extension, social media. Or the design stores like Lagur or El 8 in El Rastro antiques market, where the artfully curated early-twentieth-century Louis Vuitton trunks and mid-century Poul Henningsen Artichoke lamps cost what they should. Madrid's alluring authenticity lies in this push-pull between the grand and Hapsburgian (the pristine
Casa de Campo, Madrid's Central Park, is in full bloom, with manicured tulip beds and pruned magnolia trees) and old-world charm (a mom-and-pop antiquarian bookshop in a tiny side street in Chueca; a shoe store that specializes in bench-made leather oxfords for $170; or Frinsa La Conservera, which sells fish beautifully packaged in tin cans).
What Costos and Smith have done during their diplomatic stint is play it the way the Spaniards do by doing what they themselves do best, which means bringing important people to the party. The openly gay couple, in a country that's 93 percent Catholic, have leveraged a coveted invitation to their home, where they host state and industry leaders such as Schmidt, John Kerry, Arianna Huffington, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the Obamas. The Smith-remodeled embassy showcases not only an elegant mix of European and American furnishings but also a serious American art collection (they borrowed more than 80 pieces through the U.S. State Department's Art in Embassies program, including Robert Rauschenberg's Bilbao Scraps, a John Singer Sargent after Velázquez, and Roy Lichtenstein's Mirror).
What the duo also get is that ceremony, while an afterthought in American culture (typified by a Subway sandwich eaten on the run), is for Spaniards an end in itself. Spain's capital is like that effortlessly chic aristocrat who will close entire wings of the family estate to cut down on heating bills but will always dress—and set out the sterling—for dinner. Madrileños are famous for their cocktail culture: You'd be hard-pressed to improve on a gin and tonic—served with great relish in giant brandy snifters—at the tiny bar off the lounge at the Hotel Ritz or at the gentlemen's clubby Bar Cock in Chueca. But what's more telling is that you can have a perfect drink and a snack at the seemingly grittiest "dive bar," where a short glass of beer, una caña, is exactly the right amount and costs one euro. And more often than not, you will chase it with a few slices of prized Ibérico ham that the bartender hand-carves from a stand, unbidden—austerity be damned.
A bull's head watches over the bar at La Torre del Oro in the Plaza Mayor.
For these reasons, Madrid is in some ways exactly how you imagine a European city to look and feel. Or better yet, the way you remember Europe as it was, decades before H&M, smartphones, and Starbucks, when its foreignness to an icy-Coke-drinking American could be felt with every sip of water served at room temperature in a tiny glass. Tourism to the city from the U.S. has actually jumped 15 percent during Costos's tenure. Still, Madrid hasn't attracted visitors the way London, Paris, or Rome have—it's a city notably low in big hotel chains, "so you don't have that adding to the tour," Smith says. "It's kind of virgin snow. It's untapped."
At present, Spaniards' "proud, stubborn" cultural defiance is, Costos says, a blessing and a curse. It is perhaps this defiance of both right- and left-wing parties that has landed Spain, which has shown slow but steady recovery from its economic woes, in a yearlong political stalemate. After last year's inconclusive election and failed attempts by acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative, to win a parliamentary majority over the Socialist party, Spain's governance remains in limbo. Change comes in its own time.
Back at the embassy residence, Smith models a regal black cape made by the 115-year-old family-run Capas Seseña in Madrid. "They're amazing. When I asked, 'Can I have this shorter—and not so much volume?' they were like, 'No, no, we don't do that,'" Smith says. "They don't do the Paris version or the Japanese version. They make capes, and that's what they do."
For a breakdown of Costos and Smith's favorite places in Madrid, check out their guide to the city.


text:
Iran's Zarif calls for peace talks over Yemen
By Nick Gass
Iran's foreign minister says that the country must put to rest the "manufactured crisis" over its nuclear program and focus on more substantial, "important work" in the region.
Yemen would be a good place to start, Mohammad Javad Zarif writes in a New York Times op-ed published Monday.
"Iran has offered a reasonable and practical approach to address this painful and unnecessary crisis," he writes. "Our plan calls for an immediate cease-fire, humanitarian assistance and facilitation of intra-Yemeni dialogue, leading to the formation of an inclusive, broad-based national unity government."
Zarif also said that while regional cooperation is necessary, it is also imperative to use existing frameworks like the United Nations to continue dialogue.
The Senate's 'nuclear' fallout
BURGESS EVERETT and SEUNG MIN KIM
"The world cannot afford to continue to avoid addressing the roots of the turmoil in the wider Persian Gulf region," Zarif wrote. "This unique opportunity for engagement must not be squandered."
Just last week, U.S. officials said that Iran was sending seven to nine ships toward Yemen, a potentially worrisome sign that the Islamic Republic is providing more support for the northern-based Houthi rebels, who have overrun the capital and forced President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to flee in March.
Al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has made startling gains amid the turmoil, including the seizure of the southern port city of al-Mukalla.
Yemeni, Saudi and Iranian officials have alleged that Iran has provided steady support to the Houthis in the form of weapons, money and training, Reuters reported in December.
Saudi Arabia, with the backing of the United States and a coalition of Arab countries, began a bombing campaign of the country last month in an effort to blunt the Houthis' advances.
Al Qaeda,
Peace Talks,
Mohammad Javad Zarif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a machine learning algorithm that leverages large amounts of intensive care unit (ICU) data to predict actionable interventions for patients and improve health outcomes.
It's Fascinating, Diverse, Not Magic, Creative, Science and Free! A few years ago, when I was a junior software engineer, I worked on a problem with one of our machine learning algorithm developers.
Is AI A Part Of Computer Science?
There is a big debate on whether AI is a part of computer science or it is a branch on its own. For those who are pursuing computer science course, AI is always considered as a subset of computer science.
Data scientists are in high demand and short supply, but they may not need a degree in computer science to get a job, according to a new report from Kaggle.