MAEKAN is a publisher and community focused on the sights and sounds of creative culture. We're about creative accountability, participation, and culture within a broader global community. MAEKAN's focused on equipping creators with the tangible and intangible tools to succeed and define the future of creative culture. We don't have all the answers, but our curiosity ensures we never stop looking. Head over to patreon.com/maekan if you're interested in supporting us and being part of our lar ...
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Indestructible: The DSPTCH Origin Story With Richard Liu
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For the MAEKAN and DSPTCH family, we’ve watched each other grow with great interest. Both of us share a similar perspective on creating and putting things out into the world. So when we first decided to explore creating product, DSPTCH was a natural first partner. Their flexible in-house manufacturing meant lower minimums and utilitarian design phi…
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After a long hiatus, we’re back with another episode of Building The Brand. Most crucially, this episode is hosted by MAEKAN founders Eugene Kan and Alex Maeland, who talk about the inception of Adam Studios, the creative agency they founded that ties into and supports MAEKAN as a company and independent publication. See the whole episode and trans…
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Two Acres at a Time — Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm
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Namu Farm is a quaint two-acre property located an hour and a half outside of San Francisco. In a time when the topic of food and industry generally focuses on scale and size, a visit to the farm is a timely reminder of where our food comes from. The whole operation is overseen by Kristyn Leach, an unexpected representation of the modern-day farmer…
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Lars Williams — Creating Sense Memories with Empirical Spirts
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In a past lifetime, Copenhagen’s Refshaleøen island was far different than today. The massive infrastructure was home to a huge boat building operation. But it has since come to represent the bedrock of some of Copenhagen’s, and Denmark’s, most respected culinary projects. Started only a few years ago, Empirical Spirits is a self-described flavor c…
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MAEKAN & BYBORRE — Redefining Comfort: Céline Pham
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Comfort. It’s something essential to our lives. The degree of comfort we experience can impact how we view the world around us. Comfort can take shape in a practical sense. Are we dry? Are we able to move freely? Are we confident about how we look? Comfort can also apply psychologically. Are we comfortable with the challenge ahead and the uncertain…
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502 Bad Gateway — An Antidote to Online Fast Fashion
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502 Bad Gateway is the best life decision Seth Footring has made in recent years. By day, Seth works in the photo and eCommerce department of ASOS in London, by night—and in all other spare waking hours—he focuses his efforts on being the creator and Editor-in-Chief of a brand new men’s fashion publication. The first issue of 502 Bad Gateway was re…
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Understanding Our World Through Objects — Johanna Agerman Ross
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The value of an object is different for everyone. If you’re practical above all else, an object’s function, efficiency, and affordability are probably the most important aspects. If you’re drawn to beautiful things, the way an object looks and fits within an environment are more appealing. If you’re curious how the puzzle pieces of geography, polit…
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Remembering Triple X — Hong Kong's Underground Mecca
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Gone before its time, XXX (known popularly as “Triple X”) was a club not far from the MAEKAN Office that was a hotspot for underground culture and music on Hong Kong’s Kowloon side. The venue of choice for acts like OKOKOK, Yeti Out and Eric Lau, among many others, it closed in late 2018 amid a background of public noise complaints, sky high rents …
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MAEKAN & BYBORRE — Redefining Comfort: Rebecca Kelley
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Comfort. It’s something essential to our lives. The degree of comfort we experience can impact how we view the world around us. Comfort can take shape in a practical sense. Are we dry? Are we able to move freely? Are we confident about how we look? Comfort can also apply psychologically. Are we comfortable with the challenge ahead and the uncertain…
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Floating in Time — Daniel Arsham Brings Us Static Mythologies
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“Looking back at it, it feels like I’m jumping around a lot, but all of the different types of work, whether it’s an installation or in the architecture studio that I have, they’re all in service of the same goal—which is to take our everyday experience, things that we know, and, sort of, make them do things or make them act in ways we don’t expect…
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MAEKAN Session — The Need for Criticism
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The growth of social media gives off the perception that the world’s smaller and more connected, but conversely, this doesn’t necessarily make the world easier to understand. In our MAEKAN Session titled The Need for Criticism, we focused on the concept of critique in a social-media dominated creative landscape. This session was our most globally e…
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To Be a Member of a Club You Never Wanted to Join — Conversing with Mike Shinoda
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Studies suggest that mental illness just may be the new normal—with an overwhelming amount of the population suffering from depression, anxiety, or a deep rooted sadness at one point or another in their lives. While some may attempt to ignore symptoms, it’s important we don’t isolate ourselves and these feelings, but rather, remove the stigma attac…
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Building the Brand — Community Governance
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In this Building the Brand, Eugene sits down with Scott to talk about the role of community governance in a brand strategy. It's never been easier to start and build a brand today, but a side effect of this is building loyalty has become that much harder. Instead of freely providing what the brand has to offer up front—or even simply dictating it t…
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Observations Abroad with Joan Wong — Part II
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Joan Wong worked at Penguin Random House in New York for the past five years as a book cover designer. Her more well-known work includes the paperback covers of the Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan, Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists. She could easily have stayed at her job…
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Celebrating and Evaluating — A Recap of Unexpected Connections
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I have a trick for when I meet new people in order to get more quickly into a substantiative conversation. I resist, for the entire meeting if possible, asking the person that I’ve just met what they do for a living. I’m not always able to swerve clear of what’s considered small talk—I still tend to talk about the weather more than is advisable—but…
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Good Earth for Good Herb — Summerland and the Perfect Ceramic Bong
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An eternal summer on a coast of smooth white sand represented in ceramics. Liam Kaczmar set out to make what he couldn’t find elsewhere when he dreamed up Summerland. His one-man operation in San Francisco has allowed him to escape the dissatisfaction he found in: having to put in 70-hour weeks for bosses, having to settle for poorly designed bongs…
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From the Portfolio of Guillaume Ferrand
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Guillaume Ferrand is an illustrator who approaches his work with careful research, deliberate intentions, and a willingness to experiment. He draws inspiration from literature, old movies, classical paintings, architecture, fashion collections, tiles—anything and everything he comes across can feed into his creative output. Besides being an illustr…
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An Hour with Tan Dun — Master Composer and Force of Culture
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Recently, MAEKAN teamed with Hong Kong’s most renowned publication SCMP to produce a story on Tan Dun, a master composer and living Chinese national treasure.Most familiar to international audiences for his work scoring Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he amassed a great body of work that combines Western and traditional Chinese theatrical…
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Shochu & Soju — Yardbird's Elliot Faber Breaks Down The World's Favorite Rice Wines
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As the distilled spirit of choice in South Korea, soju has quickly gained popularity alongside the country’s cultural exports. No stranger to the different spirits of the world, especially those in Asia, Yardbird beverage director, and Sake Samurai Elliot Faber knows a thing or two about soju and its Japanese cousin, shochu. We sat down with him in…
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Authenticity and Transparency in Fashion Media — The Fashion Law with Julie Zerbo
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Julie Zerbo began The Fashion Law while she was still in law school, using it as a way to ground the theory that she was learning in something concrete. Julie’s website originates around the explosion in popularity of fashion blogging. Those who were not formally part of the industry could attempt to carve their own path inwards. Many of these plat…
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There is No Handbook — Chapter-by-Chapter with Director Decatur Dan
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Rarely do creatives start their careers with a particular defined path. It requires a few bumps and bruises, and wrong turns to find the right path. Decatur Dan, otherwise known as Daniel Hall, has come up through the ranks in a way that’s almost a requisite for success… your own way. His initial start creating content began as the streetwear bouti…
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Product Research Through Culture — Behzod Sirjani and How Slack Humanizes Work
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Researcher and photographer Behzod Sirjani has dedicated his career towards the understanding of culture. It has come through the lens of both social media, at Facebook and more recently with remote and digital work at Slack. The interactions we’ve engaged in online have changed significantly from our face-to-face communications of the past, and as…
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MAEKAN Travel Diary — Conversing through Football in Egypt
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Hey, everyone. My name is Umar Issa. I’m from Los Angeles, California and recently I took a trip to Egypt for a few weeks.Egypt is a place I’ve wanted to visit for so long. It’s known in Arabic as Umm al-Dunya which means “mother of the world”. And I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to spend some time this summer exploring the land of our…
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Anything Can be Fascinating — Avery Trufelman of 99% Invisible on Telling Stories Well
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Avery Trufelman is a producer at 99% Invisible, an extremely popular podcast created by Roman Mars. She crafts stories about things overlooked and believes anything can be a good story when told correctly. “If you go far enough away and zoom out and look at larger pictures everything is fascinating; if you zoom in and in and in closer and closer an…
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Chris da Canha is a skateboarder and photographer who hails from Durban, South Africa, but currently calls South Korea home.A regular contributing photographer for MAEKAN, he has shot many of our stories in Seoul, where he is currently based. These include our stories on RYSE, Cody Hudson and most recently Kang Seunghyuk of WORKSOUT.Photos by Chris…
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Building A True Cannabis Lifestyle Brand — Ariel Stark-Benz of Mister Green
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Weed. Marijuana. Bud. Pot. Reefer. Dope. Herb. Mary Jane. Chronic. Broccoli. Every region, person, and demographic seemingly have their own preferred definition for cannabis. Mind you, the short list above only spans the English language. The universal nature of cannabis has made it a particular interesting part of popular culture fabric. The fact …
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Straight Outta Saigon — Jenni Trang Le Talks Vietnam's Film Industry
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In this first story to come out of Saigon, Elphick recalls his chat with film producer Jenni Trang Le. A near 10-year veteran of the Vietnamese film industry, her work has continued to push the envelope of cinema in Vietnam overcoming obstacles that include tight budgets, fickle box offices and government censorship. Script by Nate KanTranscript by…
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Calming the Freelance Rollercoaster — Cushion App Built by Jonnie Hallman
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Jonnie Hallman has dedicated the past four years to building an app called Cushion to help ease the minds of freelancers. A long time freelancer himself, he meets the needs of freelancers with useful, smart features and also through giving a digital tool personality and warmth.Interview by Eugene KanText, Narration & Illustrations by Charis PoonAud…
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Building the Brand — 28 Days with Alek Rose
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In this Building the Brand, Eugene and Charis sit down with Alek Rose, MAEKAN's second full-time apprentice who we had the pleasure of working with these past 28 days. Half debriefing, half feedback session, this episode examines some of the insights the soon-to-be graduate Alek has gained, as well as challenges he faced in his short few weeks in H…
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Rooted in Californian Nostalgia — 40s and Shorties Grows Up
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Charis Poon interviewed Adem Niazi and Drewbyrd from 40s and Shorties during their short trip to Hong Kong. Listen as the two co-founders speak about building the brand and how it has enabled them to share their own story of being rooted deep in California's culture. Text, Interview & Narration by Charis PoonAudio by Elphick WoPhotos by Christopher…
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Gideon De Kock is a Hong Kong based street photographer originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He used to work as a full time musician while in South Africa, has a background in sound engineering, and still occasionally plays guitar and bass and mixes audio.After moving to Hong Kong, Gideon cut his teeth as a photographer shooting the streets and…
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The Golden Years — Detroit Techno's Warehouse Scene
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“See you at the Packard” was what Detroit youth would say as they parted ways at the city’s coffee shops, before regrouping after sunset. Opened in 1903, the Packard Plant was a grand statement of the booming American car industry. Yet the mid-century recession meant the 3,500,000-square-foot plant was left abandoned. In 1957, the plant closed its …
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Depression is Like Anything Else — Neal Brennan Mic'd Up
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Depression is Like Anything Else — Neal Brennan Mic'd UpComedian and Chapelle's Show co-creator Neal Brennan opens up on how culture and society need to change perceptions of depression.Script, Narration & Audio by Kevin ChauPhotos by Christopher Lim & Eugene KanIllustrations by Jeremy LeungSee the whole story: https://www.maekan.com/article/depres…
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Shedding Vanity — Establishing Purpose with Alex Valdman of Rapha
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Alex Valdman has worked dilligently and embraced the bumps and bruises of innovating in fashion and design. His early path in fashion was driven by the vanity of working with the likes of Kanye West and Nike, but in time he recognized vanity's detrimental effects on a creator's ultimate path.Hosted by Eugene KanAudio by Elphick WoPhotos by Mia Hagg…
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David Kenji Chang spoke with Brendon Babenzien, creator of the apparel brand Noah, about taking a stand, not pulling punches, and balancing contradictions. Continue reading for the full story or listen to a condensed version of the interview above. Text and interview by David Kenji Chang Audio mixing by Elphick Wo Photos by Heather Sten See the who…
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Made To Last — The Knives of Hinoki
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The brand Hinoki may be best known for the S1 Gyuto Chefs Knife, but 24-year-old founder Hamish Grace is doing a lot more than just selling blades on the internet with this project. Behind what appears to be a sleek knife brand is actually a mission to c--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/maekan/support…
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Trusting Your Senses — Eric Lau on Music Shaping Society
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Eric Lau is a London based music producer focused on making music that connects people and has a positive impact on society. He looks intentionally for ways that his music and his skills can inspire and encourage others, whether it’s through mixing albums, producing original work, or teaching young people. His desire to shift society towards goodne…
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A Playing Field for All — New Opportunities for Creatives of Color
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The creative world sees itself as progressive and liberal. The beliefs that make up this mindset are easy to understand on a theoretical level, but they don’t always translate directly into practice. Each life is a collection of unique experiences: a combination of our background, our history, and our culture. Taking that complexity and simplifying…
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Muted Music — The Private Spaces of Karachi’s Underground
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Faraz Siddiqui and Hassan Khan, Co-Founders of lifestyle brand HeF. " data-reactid=".twey87g0iy.3.$4.2.2.0.0:$17836000003.0.0.0.0" /> Imagine moving ‘home’ for the first time in your life. Having spent almost the entirety of her life abroad, Mahira returned to Karachi, Pakistan to explore the the city of her father’s childhood and mother’s early ad…
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Joshua Kissi on True Diversity in Stock Photography — TONL's Take on Equality
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Joshua Kissi’s initial foray into the world of creative culture started at a unique point in time. The fashion forums were a place of digital congregation and represented an era before the emergence of social media as we know it today. The in-depth conversations Joshua engaged in about the underlying aspects of fashion would transcend the forum pag…
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Creating a Neighborhood Hotel — RYSE Makes Its Mark on Hongdae
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In the face of the sharing economy, the modern idea of a hotel has largely been upended and put on the defensive. When on-demand rental places offer a plethora of choices in prime neighborhoods and with potentially more competitive prices, it pushes hoteliers to reimagine what role they should play as fosterers of hospitality and community. RYSE is…
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The Outlier Way — Clothing Unwavering Against Compromise
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The philosophy behind Outlier may not be abundantly clear but several moments spent with their product or their visuals should evoke something. A moment of intrigue. A sense of movement. It takes a bit of dedication and experience with the brand but with it comes the ability to draw out a series of characteristics that exude a sense of innovation a…
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Spinning Wheels — Ceramics and Music with Sloane Angell
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It was an off chance that MAEKAN connected with fashion designer and DJ turned ceramicist Sloane Angell. It’s funny how things manage to work themselves out. At the time, MAEKAN had just moved into a new office and the lingering odor from a fresh coat of paint had various people ritualistically (or desperately?) reaching for a stick of incense ever…
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Block Parties & Music History — Philadelphia's DJ Matthew Law
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Back in Summer 2017, Elphick took a trip to North America to visit friend and fellow producer Tee (who helped to produce our Sounds of Hong Kong and Sounds of Tokyo stories). Following his stays in Toronto and New York, he decided to drop by Philadelphia to meet with DJ Matthew Law, who Elphick had met in Hong Kong a few years prior to MAEKAN’s inc…
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How Long Did That Take to Paint? — The Art of Matt McCormick
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Every day is a culmination of all our past experiences. Seemingly innocuous moments snowball with major life-altering events to shape how we look and perceive the world around us. For Matt McCormick, the tattoo turned fine artist wasn’t somebody who entered the world of art with everything figured out. The early stages of life afforded him access t…
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Ballers for Hire — China's Underground Basketball Scene
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When you hear the term “pro athlete,” it’s understandable you’d think almost exclusively of the superstars on TV playing before sold-out audiences in the major leagues. But what if the athletes were getting paid to play for different teams by-the-match and in venues that swing between urban gymnasiums and rainy asphalt courts in the boonies? Welcom…
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Equidistant — Ms Banks & Fotan Laiki Contrast and Compare Their Musical Worlds
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As a native of Hong Kong, I’m confronted with the duplicity of being a creative in a market full of opportunity, but with little structure to support it. Hong Kong is vexing in that it’s a globalized financial and cultural center similar to New York and London, but unlike those cities, it still lacks on the cultural front. The underground creative …
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Imperfectly Perfect — Cody Hudson for RYSE Hotel
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Cody Hudson is a mutual friend that has become in many ways, the artist who’s everybody’s friend. It’s hard not to like the soft-spoken artist based in Chicago. He carries himself with this outward calm that frankly puts you at ease. His work itself feels intimately connected with himself as an individual. It’s about putting something out and not g…
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Into the South — Connecting with The Mississippi Delta Chinese
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In this story, Nate chats with NY-based photographers Emanuel Hahn and Andrew Kung. While both have a large body of experience with commercial work, the two left the big city behind for a few weeks in October 2017 to personally connect with a community in the South that’s been rooted there for generations, but remains largely misunderstood—if known…
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Earlier this year, we paid a visit to friend, long-time collaborator and neighbor Arthur Bray, better known as Yeti. A native Hong Konger that attended university in the UK, his career as a DJ developed through weekend trips throughout the country and its diverse club scene and alongside his partner in crime, his twin brother Tom. We sat down in hi…
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