Together & February Recap
An occasional newsletter as a deep dive into the minds, habits, obsessions, affairs, and influences of our friends and fam.
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I think we’ve all been a bit more silent over the past week, baffled and shocked by what’s happening in Ukraine… It’s hard to articulate emotions that rise in times like these, and felt Amsterdam based Echobox stated it very well: "No post will ever cover exactly how this situation is affecting people, just as no post will ever be able to fully grapple with and condemn strongly enough the enormous complexity of war, displacement, and other forms of oppression. No post will be able to show enough solidarity with people affected by war, both in Ukraine and elsewhere. But we urge you all to do what you feel you can to aid those affected."
Please check this list on what you can do, follow the grassroots conflict reporting account Popular Front to get the most unfiltered news and do what ever you think is needed. And lets definitely do it Together!
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Now, by popular demand. A recap of last months ideas/articles/links/music/podcasts/movies/vibes as shared on the slack channels (in no particular order):
🧫 W. David Marx’ newsletter Culture: An Owner's Manual. A newsletter about the mechanics of culture: what it is, what it does, how it works, where it comes from, and why it changes. We highly recommend.
🎚️ Dilla Time. Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of J Dilla, a musical genius who transformed the sound of popular music for the twenty-first century. By Dan Charnas.
📈 WITI’s very clear The Tech Hype Edition - On tulips, NFTs, and the boring middle.
🪑 Koen Tossijn released his latest project ‘Together’ - A chair is made for sitting’. You can sit alone or together, using it to eat, read, wait, or just look into space. Magical. As featured on Another.so
🛫 Slowly feeling like travelling again? Do so with Wildsam travel guides. Wildsam seeks out deep connections and uncommon insight, unearthing the mysteries of a place. We love that.
🎬 A good list to keep an eye on: Studio Movies Directed by Filmmakers of Color Coming Out in 2021, 2022, 2023, and Beyond. From "The Eternals" to the untitled Jordan Peele.
🔥 If you love to burn it, burn Ponsont
🕴️ Swan Songs: Souvenirs of Paris Elegance, is a newly published book about a rapidly disappearing world of craft-based menswear by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans. Together with Put This On he discusses how some of the themes in his book may apply to brands today. Why do some brands survive where others stumble and eventually fall?
😶🌫️ "Do I try to opt in to whatever trend comes next, or do I choose to accept that my last two good years were spent on my couch gobbling antidepressants and wearing 'cute house pants' and UGGs?"A Vibe Shift Is Coming, will any of us survive it?
🏷️ We all got very exctied by Yancey Strickler introducing a new form for cultural collaboration. "A metalabel exists to promote ideas and encourage new ways of seeing according to the values of the label itself… A metalabel is likely to be a bottom’s up organization rather than a top-down one, and owned by the artists themselves."
📃 This lovely project/site by Folkert Gorter, called Gutenberg Man, to explore interesting graphic design and typography in order to 'to collect work that touches some zone some of an internal ideal.'
🔮 "We underestimate future possibilities for the same reason we overestimate the time we have left with those we love." Great piece by Tim Urban (Wait but why) on How Covid Stole Our Time and How We Can Get It Back.
📚 House Publishing launched!
💿 On the music side: Radiohead’s side-project The Smile. Vegyn's new 2,5 hrs album. Burial+Four Tet is fire. And Beach House, Alt-J, Trentemøller, and more… (+Moderat is dropping soon!)
♻️ Very disturbing, and yet very expected… That Organic Cotton T-Shirt May Not Be as Organic as You Think. The organic cotton movement in India appears to be booming, but much of this growth is fake, say those who source, process and grow the cotton.
📷 When Hip-Hop Was Young - A beautiful New Yorker piece on how Sue Kwon photographed the artists whose music would go on to change the world.
🏴 Matt Klein captured the Meta Trending Trends of 2022 for us in he Top 14 Overlapping Cultural Trends From 40+ Reports
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Hope you enjoyed this one - And as always, let’s get Together soon IRL!
PS. There are enough bots and ghosts in our lives. We’ve always seen Together&, human and alive, so please enjoy, share and forward this. And we'd love to see you in Slack to discuss things often. If you know people who should join, let us know!