Good morning!
Every so often, I’ll have the sort of week that makes me wonder, Talking Heads–style, Well, how did I get here?
This one began in London with a visit to the beautiful, messy, wondrous studio/funhouse of a certain Paul Smith. It was one thing to talk with the legendary fashion designer for Time Sensitive last month; it was another thing entirely to be with him in Covent Garden as he whirled about his three-room space there with excitement, picking up this thing or that, each object telling a joyful, miraculous story. Somehow, amid the piles and piles (and piles) of stuff that he has amassed, there’s a certain eye and order. Perhaps my favorite object he showed me was the absolutely pointless yet brilliant Useless Box (click the link to learn more; it’s not just a clever name), which happened to be right next to the book Tadao Ando: 5 Dialogues. This Useless Box–Ando book pairing was, as with Paul himself, perfectly lowbrow and highbrow.
On Tuesday, I flew back to New York to arrive in time for a beautiful, wondrous, but decidedly not messy dinner at RW Guild. Co-hosted by Robin Standefer of Roman & Williams and the Town & Country magazine editor-in-chief Stellene Volandes, the event was held in celebration of the April 2024 issue of T&C, which includes perhaps the wildest story of architectural history I’ve ever written, about Philip Johnson’s Brick House (1949) in New Canaan, Connecticut. The architecture critic Paul Goldberger, whom I quote in the piece, puts it best: “The personal aspect of that building was not about his library. It was, you know, a room for fucking.”
Then, on Thursday, I drove across New Jersey, to Princeton University, where I was invited to speak to an architecture class about writing, criticism, memorials, editing, bookmaking, podcasting, entrepreneurship, and other things Slowdown- and media-related. This has all got me thinking about just how vast and wide The Slowdown sphere has really become: from Paul Smith to RW Guild to Princeton, from the interior designer Ilse Crawford to the culinary historian Jessica B. Harris, from the Columbia Journalism School dean and New Yorker contributor Jelani Cobb to the theater director Robert Wilson, from the novelist Min Jin Lee to—this week’s Time Sensitive guest—the artist Adam Pendleton.
Maybe I’m feeling particularly reflective right now because The Slowdown and Time Sensitive both turn five next week, on May 1. To help mark the occasion, I interviewed the Pittsburgh-based sculptor Thaddeus Mosley, who, at 97, is the oldest guest we’ve ever had on the podcast. On the episode, which drops next Wednesday, he tells me, “I’ve always strived to do something that’s not only interesting today, but will be interesting in a hundred tomorrows.” A great sentiment to end this note on.
Until next week…
—Spencer
