It Goes The Other Way Too, Cocoa’s Journeys to Asia, Banksy, and More
Friday, March 22, 2024
Happy Friday y’all.
Here are 10 things I found interesting from the last week or so.
1/ In Stranger Lands: Cocoa’s Journeys to Asia
Last Friday, I attended an art exhibition hosted by the Nguyen Art Foundation here called In Stranger Lands: Cocoa’s Journeys to Asia. It’s a two-part exhibition curated by Caroline Ha Thuc and features 17 newly commissioned artworks by established artists working across Asia. The exhibition is displayed at EMASI Nam Long in District 7 and EMASI Van Phuc in Thu Duc City from March to July 2024. Check it out — they got free chocolate samples!
2/ This Is Your Entire Life In Weeks
Last week, I mentioned the creator @bymaximise and why I think their editing style is unique. This week, the creator did another cool video I want to share. It was inspired by Tim Urban’s blog, Wait But Why.
3/ Interviews Interviews
This week, I got to interview Megan Lawson, Partner for Asia Renewables at ERM, the largest pure-play sustainability company in the world. Our talk was centered around the challenges and opportunities for sustainability here in Vietnam. I also interviewed Thanh Vu, an ultramarathon runner from Hanoi. Our talk was about her journey of getting into racing and how it relates to the business world. I really enjoyed both chats! It’s always lovely to speak to people who come from different parts of the world and from unique backgrounds who are doing very different things. More to come later!
4/ The Paradigm Shift Happening in NBA Media
The NBA media landscape is changing, and I am here for it.
More and more players, active and retired, are creating their own podcasts: Podcast P with Paul George, The Old Man and the Three with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter, The Big Podcast with Shaq, The Draymond Green Show, Gil’s Arena (Gilbert Arenas), All The Smoke (Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson), KG Certified (Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce), and more.
But the newest player-centered podcast has been released, and it will change the whole game: Mind the Game with JJ Reddick and Lebron James. I’m pumped. Here’s Episode 1: What Makes a Great Basketball Player?
5/ It Goes the Other Way Too
Here’s a video of a young Quentin Tarantino talking about how five years of rejection led to one massive year of success. Worth taking a look.
6/ Life of Charles Schultz
In a lesson I taught for one of my younger classes, the assigned reading was about cartoonist Charles Schultz, creator of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the rest of the Peanuts gang.
In the reading lesson, Charles is described as a quiet boy. He wasn’t good at school or sports, and his classmates were mean to him. But he was talented at art and became a famous artist. That’s a very short version of someone's life: a troubled childhood results in a prolific artistic career. I wanted to know a bit more, so I found a video on Shultz talking about creativity while drawing the Peanuts. Also worth checking out!
7/ Banksy Strikes Again By Going Green
Another artist on my mind this week is Banksy. The artist struck again!
7/ Not Only Stronger but More Beautiful Too
In this newsletter, I’ve come across a handful of beautiful Japanese concepts such as tsundoka, yutori, and chindōgu. I found another one I really liked: the concept of kintsugi.
It is the art of repairing broken pottery with gold or silver lacquer. It symbolizes how we should embrace our imperfections by turning our moments of wreckage or momentary cracks in spirit into something beautiful. As Hemingway wrote,
“We’re stronger in the places that we’ve been broken.”
Not only stronger but more beautiful, too.
8/ Simply Freelancing
Last week, I shared how my former classmate at NYU started her own Substack. This week, I want to give another shout-out to another former classmate: Robert Davis started his own podcast called Simply Freelancing, where he’ll talk about freelancing and how to do it successfully. Here’s Episode 1: What is freelancing and why does it matter?
9/ Wisdom from Howard Thurman
“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
10/ Dunk of the Year
To end this week’s newsletter, I’d like to share a video of Anthony Edward’s dunk over Utah Jazz guard John Collins. In the words of Mark Jackson, “Mama, there goes that man.” My goodness.
That's it for this week. Thank you for reading. Enjoy your weekend, and I’ll see you next week!
—Garrett
P.S. “and More!”
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Thank you for your articles, always interesting!
Love this quilted list! Going to tattoo Taratino’s pre-success rejection streak on my brain and I forge my creative path. That does seem to be a trend amongst artists and writers. And what does “pure-play” actually mean by the way!? Also, the Japanese really have a knack for metaphor. I almost included kintsugi in an essay I have coming out soon in Al Jazeera, but opted for wabi-sabi instead. There’s also a beautiful book called “in praise of shadows” about how architecture can be optimized to interact with light and shadows. There is no end to the wisdom of their words. Thanks for this Garrett!