Tea with sg

Carolina @carolevymx runs @soytemx, as far as I know, the highest quality tea company in Mexico, my adopted home. She partners with @teadrunk, previously featured with guest Shunan Teng. I had one of her roasted oolongs after this episode, and it warmed me in really lovely ways. Aftertaste coated back of throat, and it really filled my chest, the mark of a good oolong. Caro is very knowledgeable about tea. She tells of her education on this episode, it's a really good story for anyone interested in learning. She understands clearly what was important and what was a waste of time. I love the convergence of indigenous Mexican and South American culture with Eastern Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese ideas and techniques. Enjoy!

Daniel @danielaskill is editing his first narrative feature! I learned this on the episode, so excited for him. He's a director I've known for a while, you've seen lots of his work. Most notably the Sia 'Chandelier' video. I'm not gonna link it who cares, you know it, you can find it. Anyone incapable of that isn't listening to this podcast, let's be real. Westworld ripped off his short film Universal Machine last year. His cinema is obsessed with bodies. You can trace his style from the beginning w this similar view of the lines on bodies and the lines bodies make. Take the crease of his own back in his debut short film from 2003, or the line that three surfboards create riding one wave in his latest work, a collaboration with Cinematographer Natasha Braier and surfer Steph Gilmore, amongst many more.  Notable for me because it was Braier's return to shooting bodies in water after her Lynne Ramsey short film Swimmer, a classic. Go watch all this stuff. After you listen. Enjoy. Sorry for technical difficulties. You'll be ok. www.danielaskill.com

Patrice @patrice_baumel is an electronic music producer from Germany currently based out of Amsterdam. We connected thanks to Scuba and had here what could have been a much longer conversation. Love talking about how electronic and dance music has evolved over the last few decades, getting lots of detailed insight into scenes I was only on the periphery of. We talk about finding balance in producing for audiences and what comes fully natural in a vacuum. Lots of ideas and philosophy talk. Enjoy.

Elyse @tealettea is different from the other tea world guests I've had so far. She's focused on wholesale, starting by opening up relationships with farms in the east, all the way to her network of worldwide retailers. She uses the term 'cultural bestowment' to replace a lot of buzz words we hear, to describe a mission of bringing quality tea to the world, with consciousness around all that occurs from field to cup. She's invested in education and connection around the tea world, from novices looking for their first exposure, to experts interested in learning secrets of single origin sources. Here are some links:

www.tealet.com

https://teaanditspeople.com/

https://teaanditspeople.com/blogs/virtual-tea-party - Posted past live education sessions

[email protected]

Wrekmeister Harmonies @wrekmeisterharmonies JR Robinson and Ester Shaw released my album of the year in February. It's funny that during the episode I thought it was released last year, but time is a flat circle. It's a huge literary transcendental work. Really has a beginning middle and end, it's incredibly emotional. We talk about the ideas at work, and how many with minimal exposure to these kinds of sounds can mistake it for being 'dark.' This is a good episode if you want some 101 exposure to why people get inspired by music like this, why we consider it shining the brightest light. Their collaboration in life and work is beautifully inspiring as well, and I appreciate so much how open and illuminating they are about it. Loved talking to them. www.wrekmeisterharmonies.net

Zuri @zuriwithafringeontop is spokesperson for @blackatdalton, an account shining light on racism at the school we both graduated from. It's part of a lot of emerging accounts, starting with @blackatbrearley. I support what they are doing and hope to bridge gaps in conversation given my position, which I go into in the episode. More info from Zuri:

Zuri Washington is a Dalton School Alumni (Class of ‘09) who normally graces stages across the country as an actress and singer, but in these COVID-times, she finds herself called to activism’s front door as both a playwright and spokesperson for the “Black at Dalton“ movement.

Black at Dalton was inspired the by the national reaction to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent reckoning of how America has handled racism in it’s near and distant past. The “Black At” movement aims to highlight the traumas of the black populations of our schools and come to the institutions in question with demands and plans of action that seek to crack foundation of these overwhelmingly white institutions and create spaces that allow for current black students to feel cared for and looked after as more than just another notch on a diversity checklist” belt. Black at Dalton aims to seek out and destroy pervasive anti-black mentalities that have harmed Dalton’s student body, past and present. We “Go Forth Unafraid” and seek to lend our voice to the community at large as best we can. This is just the beginning. 

Taylor Lorenz piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/style/blm-accounts-social-media-high-school.amp.html

Syracuse student Editor piece: https://medium.com/@jaycoaxum/unheard-and-unseen-black-students-and-faculty-take-to-instagram-to-voice-experiences-at-pwis-4b97fb3cf31d

Antoine @antoinewagnerstudio and I met ten years ago when he was filming his documentary on Phoenix during the album and tour cycle of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. That was quite the time. One of the best albums of all time period. We watched them go from a respected act with a core fanbase playing venues like Music Hall of Williamsburg (600 capacity), to Madison Square Garden (20,000 cap), that legendary set with Daft Punk, to headlining Coachella (remember when R. Kelly came out to perform the mashup?). This was all in one album cycle. What a special time. All captured in Antoine's film. We talked mostly about his great great grandfather Richard Wagner though, because I've become a big opera head, specifically Wagnerian. There's an awesome documentary Antoine did where he returned to the Swiss locations Wagner wrote Das Rheingold and many more masterpieces. Listening to the Valkyries in the Alps where they supposedly flew, conjuring the transcendental feelings of Richard Wagner, it's beautiful. Antoine is currently in Geneva for a new exhibition. We talk about it all, and here are links you can find everything: The artist Antoine Wagner discusses his multidisciplinary practice, quarantine, collaborative work, the impossible forest, Opera in 2020, the Phoenix Doc FROM A MESS TO THE MASSES and his first Virtual Reality work UMSTELLUNG opening at Galerie Untitled 1983 in Geneva this month.  @antoinewagnerstudio www.antoinewagner.com www.impossibleforest.com @untitled1983

Cherie @cheriehu42 @water_and_music is a music journalist focused on the industry side. Her work helps a huge problem with the music industry, the exchange of information and learning. It's been historically difficult for anyone, but particularly the non-white and connected individuals, to learn how the music industry works. Writers like Cherie make this available to everyone. When I was a kid, it was Hits Magazine and Hitmakers, but only the already in the industry read it. Bob Lefsetz branched out with his email newsletter. UK started to fix things with Music Week, which inspired Billboard to pivot to Billboard Biz, and brought us Tim Ingham's Music Business Worldwide, which lead to Rolling Stone including this type of journalism. We have more like Mark Mulligan. It's getting a lot better. Cherie is the only non-white male I can think of doing writing at this level. Check out her Patreon, I highly recommend subscribing if you're an artist or industry member. https://www.cheriehu.com https://www.patreon.com/m/waterandmusic

Luke @mrlukejenner of The Rapture and I recorded this day of his new release on his brand new label @manonorecords. It's really good. Long journey emotional spectrum full of ideas. We'd connected here and there over the years DJing or DFA adjacent hangs but never really talked proper. This was very cool to just go all in on ideas and feelings. We examine ourselves and the life of making stuff in similar ways and end up agreeing on a bunch of the explorations. We also connect on the need for full commitment to abstract thinking, that is to say your own thinking, not that of the playbook that's out there. I suspect that's why my music (forthcoming) shares similar qualities to his in the sorta act breaks, where the track goes in big new directions. I've always felt those free journeys are what elevates Rapture music. He's got 4 ongoing projects releasing new music, kinda like Kanye's June 2018. I'm excited to hear all of it. Support from Genusee eyewear. www.genusee.com code TEAWITHSG for discount.

Lauren @lapresmidi is New York based Editor of the Business of Fashion @bof, IMHO the most important fashion industry publication. I've been reading/following Lauren for a while. She was really influential and informative when I put my brand together. The sharing of information is so important. Fashion and music have forever been industries where skills, language, codes, processes, the whole system, gets hidden behind walls, only shared with those that people in special positions deem special. Lauren's work demystifies that and shares it with all. So without going to Central Saint Martins, you can learn the trade. I love the merging of art and craft in her writing, such that we can really understand the full spectrum of what goes into the clothes we love. I always like to speak about 'fashion' as clothes. When reading Vogue, it's fashion. On BoF, it's clothes. Fashion is a part of clothes, sure. But the clothes are the focus. What comes of them, what they do, is studied, but always in respect to the backtracking that someone made them. I love that. Sponsored by @genusee_official get 20% off with code TEAWITHSG www.genusee.com