Keepers of the Culture

Alex Sumner and the Four Components of a Well Made Suit

Published

3 years ago

May 2, 2017

New York Said Podcast

Quick Summary: Today we talk with Alexander Sumner about the Difference between Style and Fashion, The Grateful Dead, Vintage Shops as well as the Four Components of a Well Made Suit

If you know me, you know I’m not the most stylish person in the world. I mean that in the sense of being suited up to the nines. I think my style is more sporty or efficient… if you will. Or better yet, ninja like or unassuming. When I’m out capturing the places I visit, I don’t really want to be seen. I don’t want any kind of attention from anyone, I just want to get my shots and get the hell out of there… A lot of what you’ll see me in is dark muted shirts, dark jeans, some Air Max 1s or some all black chucks.

That being said, if there ever comes a time that its necessary for me to get dressed up, its not a foreign concept because of today’s guest, Alexander Sumner.

I met Alex a few years ago when this little voice in my head was going on and on about getting a real suit. So I started cruising the net and social media for men’s style. Visiting tumbler as well as sites like JJJJound and Instagram hashtags like #MensStyle. One day I came across this picture of a red button hole on a suit jacket. For some odd reason I thought it the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It was nice touch that you’re not going to find on the $100 dollar suits I was used to back then. I’m telling y’all the truth, so judge me all you want about rocking a baggy $100 suit, but it was more of check box than anything else.

Anyway, I commented on how much I liked the detail and I would like to see it in person. Alex’s response was pretty much come on by the studio. So I did and the rest is what the young people are calling, uhh history.

I met Alex in SoHo and we talked about the difference between style and fashion, The Grateful Dead, vintage shops as well as the four components of a well made suit and much much more.

Toward the end of the conversation Alex turned the tables and inquired about New York Said: Volume Three. I ranted a bit about it and if your were curious to know what’s up with the new book, that info is there.

I’m outta here, enjoy the talk.

—
Links to the Stuff they Talked About

7 Wonders of Style Questions

In your wardrobe, what’s your favorite piece of clothing, favorite shoe and favorite accessory?
Who, both inside & outside of your circle, had the greatest influence on your style?
Which musical group (or solo artist) most defines your sense of style?
Which would be your decade of choice to spend your prime in, style-wise?
As for creative inspiration; when was a time when you spotted someone or something and said, “I am going to incorporate that myself (and did) and when was a time when you spotted someone and said, “I’ll never be caught dead doing that,” and you ended up doing so?
How have you seen style expressed in ways that have nothing to do with what a person wears?
What do you feel is the difference between style and fashion?

This episode is sponsored by Gorilla Coffee.

Keepers of the Culture

Reflecting and Unpacking Memories with Helixx C. Armageddon

Published

2 months ago

June 20, 2020

New York Said Podcast

Photography by Bob Krasner

Helixx C. Armageddon is a Performance Artist, Lyricist, Experimental Music Producer, Mother, NYC resident, 1/5 of the Anomolies and a Philosopher.

Visit: The House of Helixx

Special thanks to Gene Frankel Theatre: Intimate, storied rental space for performances & rehearsals, established in 1949.

Show Notes

Poem Title: Jame Baldwin
Parkland Shooting
Macro Vs. Micro
Having those Tough Conversations
Instinct, Discernment, Intuition
Exhaustion
Channeling Energy
Life is Stressful
Therapeutic Activities
Writing Poetry
The Calling into Hip Hop
South Side Jamaica Queens
Sutphin Blvd
Flea Markets and Bootlegs
Vintage Levi’s
Nigo
The Beetlejuice Aesthetic
Early Influence
Unpacking Memories
Reflection
Entered Corporate
The Anomolies Collective
Be Comfortable in your Own Skin
Highly Curated Experiences
Challenged by Algorithms
True Growth
Understanding the World that You’re In
Digital Minimalism
Traumatic Life Experience
A Slow Decline to the End
Dressed to the Nines
Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project
The Louis Armstrong Department of Music and Medicine
Nose to Nose with Death
All the Words Past the Margin
Dharmapunx NYC
Losing the Sense of Smell
Lunchbreak By Helixx C Armageddon and Pri The Honeydark of the Anomolies
In the Spirit of Memory
Black List
Creating Experiences in Galleries
Scooter La Flore
The Art of Story
Bring the Moment to Life
Conscious
Scooter LaFORGE
Tone and Texture of the Voice
Moody Dresser
Garb
What character are you?
Emotional Intelligence
Being Present
Active Listening
Fading in the Background
Take Up Space
Create Your Bucket List
Still Shining
Cleared Her Regret List
See the Alps
Journey of Souls
All the American Dream Stuff
Find Your Tribe
Replenish the Soul and Spirit
Con Artist Collective is now The Bowery Union
Anna Bernabe
Pri the Honeydark
Black Listed
Closing Poem…

~~~
We would love to hear your thoughts on the episode. Leave a comment on the Apple Podcast App and don’t forget to rate the show.

Keepers of the Culture

On the Phone with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz

Published

4 months ago

March 24, 2020

New York Said Podcast

Portrait of Jerry Saltz by Celeste Sloman

The long awaited book “How To Be An Artist” by Jerry Saltz is here. Based off of his early Vulture essay by the same name, he wrote the work as a note to his younger self.

In this week’s episode Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic for New York Magazine talks with Amon Focus about being radically vulnerable, the importance of deadlines, the Pulitzer Prize and how to look at art. There are a few surprises in this interview but we don’t want to give it all away in the intro.

Just a heads up, during this conversation you may hear a little bit of phone static from time to time, it’s only for a few seconds, it’s nothing crazy, I just wanted to give you a heads up so you’re not wondering what the heck is that sound.

Listen & Enjoy!

Keep up to Date with Jerry Saltz

@JerrySaltz – Twitter

@JerrySaltz – Instagram

How to Be An Artist by Jerry Saltz

Want to Buy “How to Be An Artist” by Jerry Saltz?

New York ‘s art critic Jerry Saltz and his forthcoming book, How To Be An Artist (Riverhead Books, 2020).

“How to be an Artist” is a note to my younger self.

Show Notes

2018 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism – the details (links to articles for Mr. Saltz’s winning work are located on this page)
JERRY SALTZ WINS 2018 PULITZER PRIZE FOR CRITICISM– Art Forum, April 16, 2018
History of the Pulitzer Prizes
The demons
Your misery is my company
Work and creating are the same thing
The journey to finding one’s voice in writing
Long distance truck driving
Art Forum
Art Critic
Art Criticism
Whitney Museum
“The late commodified object of Marxist simulacra finds the interrogation of cross-sectionality…” -Jerry Saltz (Wait, what?)
I wrote what I really thought
I want people to know the me I think I am
Radically vulnerable
Jasper Johns
“You do everything you can do until you do what comes helpless.” Jasper Johns Quote
Dark Wood of Error Symbolism
Dante’s Inferno
“I had to go through hell in the trucks to come out somehow perfect, pure, and ready for the stars.”
-Jerry Saltz
Clement Greenberg – Art Critic
Avant-Garde and Kitsch
(Greenberg, Clement (1939). “Avant Garde and Kitsch”. The Partisan Review: 34–49.)
Art & Therapy
Dexter Hand Sewing Machine _Jerry Saltz’s father’s invention (images)
I don’t know how I got involved with art…
Inner city of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago
Diptych
The beheading of St. John the Baptist
A letter to the world in the art
What can be lost
Abstract Operating Systems
Coronavirus
Art will still be here
Bush & Cheney War aka Iraq War
Flint Water Crisis
How to see art?
Embedding of thoughts
All art is subjective
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Best of Mozart via YouTube
William Shakespeare
Do not be intimidated by art
No right way or wrong way to look at art
Indian Raga
Anoushka Shankar – Indian Classical Raga via YouTube
Music from Tibet via YouTube
Matrices of Beauty/Ugliness
Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring his Son
Charlie Parker Jazz Musician & Composer
Charlie Parker – All the things you are via YouTube
“Not all communication is accessible to all people” -Jerry Saltz
National Endowment of the Arts
I’m an artist
The value of delusion
Hearing criticism
Roberta Smith
A grain of truth in every criticism
Vincent Van Gogh Artist
Vincent Van Gogh Gallery of Paintings
My Life as A Failed Artist Essay by Jerry Saltz in Vulture.com 4/17/2017
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
Graffiti
“I don’t like Banksy’s work.” -Jerry Saltz
Banksy Street Artist
Jeff Koons Artist
Imitative & Generic
Larry David moment
Mark Rothko Abstract Artist
Emily Jones Artist
“You can learn enough from bad art as good.” -Jerry Saltz
Free Live Audio Streams of Met Opera
Pinball
Approach- the first marks are very hard
Each essay is a trip somewhere

Importance of Deadlines

I know they are bad
Make a deadline
Never break a deadline

Biggest Lessons thus Far:

Be nice
Energy-Bring it!
Make an enemy of envy
Don’t let rejection define you
You have to listen to get the final lesson…(We can’t tell you everything)

New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz as Salvador Dalí, based on a photograph by Philippe Halsman. Photo-Illustration: Joe Darrow for New York Magazine.

Jerry Saltz Quotables

“…fear is the admission price to the house of creativity, to the house of art.”

“I have no choice but to get on with it.”

“Things only happen when you work.”

“Roberta is the greatest art critic alive.”

“I throw out about 99% of what I do”

“I’ve got to get back to the art world, I’m in agony.”

“I had to go through hell in the trucks to come out somehow perfect, pure, and ready for the stars.”

“I want people to know the me I think I am”

“We are mildly insane.”

“Art – the greatest abstract operating system(s) ever devised by our species.”

“Not all communication is accessible to all people”

“All art is subjective”

“No right way, no wrong way to look at art.”

“Don’t be intimidated by art”

“Deadlines come from Hell via Heaven.”

“You can learn enough from bad art as good.”

~~~
We would love to hear your thoughts on the episode. Leave a comment on the Apple Podcast App and don’t forget to rate the show.

Keepers of the Culture

Celebrating the Legacy of Ralph McDaniels and Video Music Box

Published

5 months ago

March 3, 2020

New York Said Podcast

In this episode we Celebrate the Legacy of Ralph McDaniels and Video Music Box. With over 35 years in the industry, Ralph sits down and shares his story with us.