While everyone else seems to be steeping moodiness in electronic production, Tex Crick is recording laid back tunes on an 8-track and layering on field recordings from around New York. It’s a refreshing schtick that seems to have caught attention from Mac DeMarco, whose label is putting out Crick’s upcoming debut, Live In…New York City. The two singles out from album so far are soaked in vintage charm as well as love for the Australian’s adopted city. Listen here.
In the fall I interviewed Jacob Morris, the head of the Harlem Historical Society, for an article I was working on. I didn’t end up using the interview, but I did continue to hear from Mr. Morris, who I learned had named something like 40 streets and monuments in New York City for historic Black New Yorkers. I also learned that Mr. Morris was white— and the only member of the Harlem Historical Society. If you’re as intrigued by this set of details as I was, you’ll want to read the profile I wrote on him, which published this weekend. It’s a survey of his unrelenting work with community boards— and a meditation on the necessity for (especially white) activists to share whatever power and privilege they have through the work.
By way of an update, Derrick C. Dawson, the antiracism organizer I interviewed, suggested that the HHS offer community workshops on navigating city government, which is Morris’s specialty. After reading, Morris says he is game. If you or someone you know is involved with an org in New York that would be interested in programming like this, drop me a line and I’ll pass along your info.
Special thanks to David Levering Lewis, Lenny Singletary, Vinnie Bagwell, Derrick C. Dawson, Julius Tajiddin, Earnestine Morris, and of course Jacob Morris, among others, for sharing their work and their stories. And many rounds of applause for José Alvarado and these great photos.
While we’re on the New York deep cuts, Stella Bugbee, in her new role at NYMag as “person with time to write,” is here to tell us that New York City itself is the new aesthetic in fashion. Sahadi’s shirts, sanitation merch, and, yes, Yankees hats are de rigeur as those of us who didn’t take part in the exodus double down on our city identity and life. But the trend goes much deeper, calling back to a time when New York was affordable, idiosyncratic, less overrun by Chase Bank. (Just ask New York Nico.) Bugbee goes long on this one, so click on in if you’re down to argue over what is and what is not Zizmorcore.
New York may be the motherland of banking, but change is afoot. Now you can invest from wherever you are with Public.com, an investing social network that’s urging you to move on from your current brokerage (via a branded breakup song by Michael Bolton, no less). When you download the free Public app, they start you with $10 in free stock and pay for the transfer fees from your old brokerage. And they don’t sell your trades to third parties. So listen to the ad spot and get the app now.
*Offer valid for U.S. residents 18+ and subject to account approval. Transfer fees waived for accounts valued over $150. See Public.com/disclosures/.