7/13/2023 0 Comments Isadora mendez scott separatedYes, this makes me like any American Millennial, frequently tethered to my window to the world. I hadn’t gotten on a plane for the first time in five years, departed Texas at long last, if only for a while, and witness what this truly was.Īnyone who has ever met me very quickly learns about my obsession with my phone. However, while I was excited about what seemed great on paper (and paper I had written, at that), I still had a sense of detachment. It was an extremely legitimate festival put together by a group of people I had met over the internet. When people would ask me about Art of Cool Fest or when I’d mention it over the air, I’d always describe it as “mad legit”. It was startling how legitimate this festival was. For a group who had never put together a music festival before– The Clayton Brothers, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Bilal, Thundercat, Kneebody, Maceo Parker, Hubert Laws. That’s when it sunk in that this festival was serious. The artist write-ups that would be featured on the festival website, the official app on iPhone & Android, and the handbills were divvied up between Indy Week writer Eric Tullis and me. Nextbop and Art of Cool merged and we’ve been slowly thinking about website redesigns ever since.Ī little while later came the wave of blurbs. So when Cicely said I could keep the name, I was sold. I was still then (and am now) dedicated to it becoming the Pitchfork for jazz (but, as we continue to grow and as I continue to figure this whole thing out, it is very much its own animal). I wanted it to be a part of the narrative. I wanted the publication to grow alongside this century-old genre. I was extremely proud of what the site was building to be under my leadership and Nextbop co-founders Sébastien Hélary & Justin Wee built. I liked the idea of it but I didn’t want to leave behind Nextbop. She loved Nextbop and she wanted me to write the blog for AoC. Sleep Deprivation and Emotional Fragilityīefore I knew anything, I knew this festival was mad legit.Īrt of Cool Project Co-Founder and President Cicely Mitchell started needling me quite some time ago, maybe about a year ago. The Electrical Code of the State of North Carolina What follows is a collection of random thoughts about Durham, music festivals, journalism, Art of Cool (an organization that I have quite quickly learned to love like they’re some of my best friends on earth), and any other random thoughts that have come to mind in the midst of being emotionally overwhelmed and deprived of sleep. While I did manage to see a great many shows and review them as a legitimate music journalist typically would, there was just so much more to say about last week - the most rewarding, fulfilling week of my personal and professional life so far - than show reviews can say. The intention was for me to “cover” the festival, but me being me, I embedded myself into every facet of it possible, hanging with various musicians, constructing and organizing and helping out wherever I could. I spent much of last week in Durham, North Carolina, for the first ever Art of Cool Festival. I commented that as a writer, I’m more like Jim Kirk– I break that notion all the time. Recently, a fellow bar patron and photographer friend of mine said on Facebook that photographers should follow the Prime Directive- the guiding principle of Starfleet wherein one should not interfere with a developing civilization.
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