Strands of Genius: David Bowie, One Summer: America 1927, Duff McKagan

Guest curated by Katie Perry

May 13, 2021

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, KATIE PERRY ::

LOCATION: NYC
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: Public.com

My name's Katie. I live in New York and I'm the VP of Marketing at Public.com, an investing social network with more than 1 million members. I know Rosie from our days at 360i, when (part of) my job was to write awards case studies for all the amazing work she was working on at the time.

Editor’s Note (Rosie): I'm super excited about having Katie guest curate today! She and I met during our time at 360i, but these days she's the VP of Marketing @ Public. Faris and I are big fans of investing, but also of using stock prices and trajectories to help paint a bigger picture of the brand/company. With Public, we can invest in fractions of shares, to have some skin in the game and follow along. But more interestingly, Public is tapping into the social element -- meaning after each purchase (or trade/sell), you're prompted to say something about your decision. Super cool stuff, and of course Katie is killing it over there! Thanks for being here, Katie!

:: THE LINKS ::

DAVID BOWIE INTERVIEW, AMSTERDAM (1977)

This is an incredibly raw interview that Bowie did in a hotel in Amsterdam during the peak of his success. It's sort of long and rambling but you get a view of how his brain works. He talks about how he feels about young people idolizing him (he's refutes the idea that he's a hero), the separation between his characters and his real identity, and the genesis of the song "Heroes." At one point he gets overheated, but can't take his jacket off because the mic's on it, so he just takes off one sleeve. (YouTube)

ONE SUMMER: AMERICA 1927

Life feels so crazy in the modern age that it's easy to think that this is the craziest things have been. I read this book a few years back called "One Summer: America 1927" which changed the way I think about that. The book outlines the litany of historical events that all took place during just a few months in 1927. These included Babe Ruth hitting 60 home runs, Charles Lindbergh's first non-stop solo transatlantic flight, the Sacco Vanzetti trial, and the beginnings of tabloid culture. I've attached the New York Times book review here by way of a quick summary. (New York Times)

DUFF MCKAGAN: GUNS ‘N CAPITAL

This blew my mind when I read it. I used to love watching Behind the Music on VH1 as a kid and the GnR episode was one of my favorites. Mostly because at the time, the lifestyles they were living were so far removed from my life that I couldn't believe it. After the success and the partying was, of course, the hangover and ongoing struggles with addiction. The band's bassist Duff McKagan was one of the hardest partiers and not a name you hear of these days unlike Axl Rose and Slash. I stumbled upon this Bloomberg piece that revealed that in 1994, Duff invested $100K across Amazon, Starbucks, and Microsoft. I did a quick back of napkin estimate and found that if he held those stocks, he likely would have made more than $70 million on them based on their share prices today. We don't know if he held the stocks, but I love the story because it shows shrewdness (and sure, some luck) from an unconventional investor. This story is unique and not repeatable for most, but I love everything about it. Never judge a book by its cover. (Bloomberg)

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:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: I inherited a hatred of board games from my dad. Won't do it. I've also never played a game on my phone in my entire life. :)

:: City :: New York

:: Book :: Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

:: Podcast :: Lately it's "Girls Just Wanna Have Funds" hosted by Saira Rahman

:: Album :: "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" - Elton John

:: CHRIS FARLEY ::

Everyone go sign up for Public and follow me there.

Katie Perry

katieeperry@gmail.com

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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

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