Breakfast Clubbing #17
Week of August 5th. PDX, Williamsburg, CDMX, Manhattan and Vegas are ON. And Cincinnati enters the chat.
Hi all.
The downtown Brooklyn and Hampton’s gangs are off for the month but the rest of our regulars are bubbling along as normal, even in the quiet August period. What I often say to people interested in starting a regular Breakfast Club event in their home city is that the most important qualification is the willingness to show up and see what happens - and I’m grateful to Scott, Nina, Mike, Steve, Victoria, Lauren, Jeff, Kat, Heidi, Radhika, Amy, Charla, Moritz and Steph for being intrepid, confident and gracious hosts week in and week out, even when their cities are summer sleepy.
I’m equally grateful, of course, to everybody’s who’s crossed the threshold at a BC event at any point in the last (almost) three years. If that’s not you, yet - come hang sometime. You’ll have fun, I promise. And I’ve got plenty of gratitude in the tank. Take for instance Theo Erasmus who’s joined us in Brooklyn a few times, and is now kicking off Breakfast Club in Cincinnati! This brand could be your life, if you get my meaning ;).
Read on for all the details:
Breakfast Club’s Esprit de Corps:
Everyone’s invited - especially you. And you can join the group here, too.
Feel free to share, bring friends, colleagues, family, anyone.
No agenda, no required buy-in, no RSVP. And no pitches.
Everyone pays their own way.
You’re welcome to subscribe.
Breakfast Club Events Week of August 5th, 2024:
Tuesday, July 30
Portland, OR
Co-hosted by Scott Crane and Nina Sers
9a @ Proud Mary
Per Scott’s post:
“If it’s a Tuesday, we are at Proud Mary 9AM with my co-host Nina Sers and a growing crew. No agenda, no pitching, no talking points. Just breakfast, great conversation, good vibes, and lots of laughter. We hope you can make it!”
Wednesday, August 7th:
London
Co-Hosted by Victoria Gates-Fleming
8a @ Breakfast Club Charing Cross
Brooklyn (Williamsburg)
Hosted by me, Ben Dietz and a host of regulars
8:30a @ Le Crocodile at The Wythe Hotel
Mexico City
Co-Hosted by Steve Bryant
8am @ Lardo
Thursday, August 8th:
Manhattan
Co-Hosted by Radhika Malhan and Heidi Hartwig
8:30am @ Eva’s Kitchen on Grand
Cincinnati (JUST ADDED)
Co-Hosted by Theo Erasmus
8:30a @ Mom n Em Coffee
Las Vegas
Co-Hosted by Steph Balzer
8a @PublicUs
Breakfast Club Events Upcoming:
* August 14: London,Williamsburg, Mexico City
* August 15: Manhattan, Las Vegas
* October 14-17: Camp Cultivate: Mammoth, CA
Last Week Briefly:
Breakfast Club London Report: 7.31.24
As per Victoria’s email:
“The small but mighty London trio this week was Lauren Wallett, Victoria Gates-Fleming and Kate Dalrymple. Here are some convo highlights from our mini meet up:
✨The role of the royal jester vs the role of the royal portraitist, clowning around and entertainment as therapy, EDMR, TikTok nihilism, how Zoom kills serendipity, tech sales bros, outsourcing tasks to AI, how getting away leads to creative breakthroughs, empathetic leadership, thriving in ambiguity, the strength of saying no and listening to your intuition.✨
Next week it’s just Victoria hosting as Lauren is in New York but it will be same time same place - The Breakfast Club Old Compton St. 8-9.30am!”
Breakfast Club Classic Report: 7.31.24
At my table we talked Amangiri merch, Blackbird Spyplane, being firmly Gen X, more Breakfast Club LA ruminations, moving to LA, corporatization of cultural media, cassette tape culture, working in museums, the bureaucracy of large organizations, making the move to the agency side, brand transformation, trying too hard, having clothing be the center of your life, vernacular obfuscation, Glenn O’Brien, service journalism, disintermediation of recommendation through the guise of cool, building a fit around a pair of jeans, Ralph Lauren, the insufferable intersection of men’s fashion and the ‘very online’, sunshowers, the store LLAMS, the bar behind Four Horsemen, James Murphy, the new Honky Tonk in Williamsburg, trying to make Swingers happen in 2024, old computers like the Commodore 64, death portals, how terrible photoshop ai is, Eddie Lampert's yacht, infinity basketballs, the AI pendant that texts you when it has an idea, wanting a Tamagotchi as an adult, technology intervening in marital discord, bullying AIs, missiles with knives in them, dormant sneakers, celebrating Air Max day, the Nike debacle, availability risk, the good or badness of ‘winning isn’t for everyone’, innovation in chocolate bars, why there aren’t any new candies, everyone becoming a risk manager, making a yearly list of ‘originals’, "Deadpool vs Wolverine," brand decay, watching three and a half movies a day, the ‘uncut gems’ of anxiety, Eisenstein vs Von Sternberg, jungian explorations of "Full Metal Jacket," "Tropic Thunder" being back on streaming as an indication of a vibe shift, Quaker Marine Supply Co., the journey into an Ayahuasca experience, climbing Kilimanjaro and lots more.
Elsewhere, as Zach chimed in: “We talked about summer break, for kids and adults (and in turn the idea of when play results in punishment and when it doesn't). Some talks of of moms that kept pieces of your childhood; teeth, hair, and metal shoes. Which and why sensory memories last and how smelling tells more than seeing. The craft of sound design and the beginning of audio monuments.”
The gang was Paul Greenberg, Natalie Gregory, Zachary Mallard, Zaira Stefani Vallejo, Dan Barman, Dan Burt, Jill Meisner, Elliot Aronow, Ruthie Darling, Kalil Greenberg, Ian Edgar, Sean Flax, Nick Bodor, Leann Abad, Matthew Goldman, Lindsay Saito, Jesse Kirshbaum, Adam Brawer, Erick M. and me.
Breakfast Club Hamptons Report: 7.31.24
Per Mike’s Post:
The OG group was there for the last Breakfast Club through September.
We discussed:
- Moving from NYC
- SELLING art
- Starting non profits
- Recent shows out here
- Hidden gems
- Coffee coming out quick
- Bringing a younger energy to stuff
And other things. Thanks for coming everyone! See you in September.
Jim Porcarelli , Jonathan Shoemaker and Mike Kilcoyne
Breakfast Club Mexico City Report: 7.31.24
Per Steve’s Post:
CDMX Breakfast Club Report July 31st!
Under discussion: The benefits of AI storyboarding, the prevalence of AI post-production, how for example the beautiful rivers you see in car commercials are usually thanks to special effects, that AI commercial playing during the Olympics which isn’t very good, the benefits of well-run accelerator programs, how and why customer retention is cheaper than acquisition, building an AI fuzzy interface to help corps develop content ideas, the delights of playing Go, the AlphaGo documentary, how Deadpool & Wolverine is a meta-joke on both studios and the audience, how poor Channing Tatum never got to make his Gambit movie, and how Mexico has some of the strictest anti-smoking laws in the world
Today we were the three amigos, including Daniel Meyer and Rafa Jiménez
Breakfast Club Manhattan Report: 8.1.24
Per Radhika’s Post:
At my table we talked LA vs NY, being nice to your ChatGPT, friend.com and their $1.8 mn domain name, artist residencies in New York, Friends from New York’s merch, potential Breakfast club merch, growing your brand without alienating your core audience, Ask Holly’s Mini MBA, Gen Alpha's social media usage (or lack of), cultural artifacts like 'bratala', a historical take on lore about 'baby dragons of ’Slovenia, the 600 strong 'ride more talk less' motorcycle club and controlling your anxiety through adrenaline driven activities and more.
And it was Ben Dietz, Ishita Sharma, Allison Rutberg, Shmulik, Dennis Quinn, Bridget Russo, Paul Greenberg, Julia Popescu, Nimrah Khanyari, Melanie Vesey, Mike Kilcoyne, Heidi Hartwig, Jordan and me.
We'll do this every Thursday–and you're invited <3
Breakfast Club Manhattan Report: 8.1.24
Per Steph’s Post: Here's a picture of Bryce apparently conducting a vision test.
It's the Vegas Breakfast Club report for Aug. 1 with Heidi Lee, CFRE, Paysha Rhone, Bryce Brady, and me.
Table topics included getting depressed visiting towns you used to live in, embracing a Julia Child phase, moving with kids, the best ages of kids, attending weddings with kids, dropping kids off at school, the vibe of the Madonna Inn , Pizza Port Brewing Company in Oceanside, Ranch Water, clout chasing and authenticity in politics, Steve Ballmer and "bing" v. "bang", coaching soccer, sourcing energy to manage a classroom (or any activity 1:many), and book recos: Interior Chinatown; The Sympathizer; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; and Before We Were Yours. (Then It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the best movie theaters in Vegas, and the new adaptation of Presumed Innocent on AppleTV.)
It's cool that PublicUs totally knows us now! We're a (small) thing. Hope to see you there soon! As always, no agenda, no RSVPs, and no pitches.
OK - see you at Breakfast! And if not this week, sometime soon.
that idea of merch.... what do you think??