Strands of Genius: Everyone is a Sellout, 2 Mins of Simpsons, Oral History of Pitchfork
Plus: a vegetable revelation & red wine carpets
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga, TN
WORKING ON | positioning, proposals, and party planning <3
LOOKING AHEAD
March 10 - April 11 | Chattanooga, TN
April 11 - 15 | Nashville, TN
April 15 - 19 | Chattanooga, TN
April 19 - 26 | Beersheba Springs, TN
April 26 - 30 | Miami, FL
April 30 - May 18 | Worcester Park, UK
May 18 - 20 | Nashville, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Oh hi there! We’re coming to you from a beautiful Chattanooga, with a carpet full of red wine. We’re not staining it intentionally, but we are staining it. Because even with stemless wine glasses, it turns out that keeping red wine in your glass can be challenging. Case in point: there have been three full glasses of red wine spilled on our carpet in the last one week. It feels excessive. But the people who spilled were cute and lovely and we want to keep them around. And we want our home to be lived in, not to feel like museum set. So we endeavor to do our best on clean up, while acknowledging that we will never be a red-wine-free household. (It’s too delicious.) We also will not be a human or pet-free household because we love humans and we love their pets.
And y’all may already know this but holy smokes, getting a red wine stain out of a carpet IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. Pretty much every website offers a different potion or trick, but they all involve loads of blotting, and incredibly long timelines. I’m writing this while intermittently blotting and pouring a concoction of hot water and 2 tablespoons of StainDevil #8 on it. (Yes, you ARE supposed to use hot water with StainDevil #8 even though you traditionally don’t use on red wine.) (And no, you are definitely NOT supposed to use it on a rug or carpet because it says “not for use on rugs and carpets” but it’s the only thing we’ve found that does ANYTHING.) (Honestly thought about just making this an ad for Carbona’s Stain Devil #8 because holy shit it’s amazing on clothes even if it’s not as quick and easy as I would like on carpets.)
...Which leads us to our new business idea… (ok fine, it was Faris’) ….a red wine stained carpet. We’ll design the carpet to look like the stains were Jackson Pollock’ed — or at least, ya know, intended. But we’ll also leave gaps so that you can add your own stains, with no shame involved. You can call yourself an artist, part of the production process, the creative director, whatever you want. Maybe you LIVE for stains now. You can’t wait for the next clumsy person to come over, and you insist on serving them a colorful cocktail or a dark red wine. You jump in joy when they spill all over your carpet, and ask them to please pose by their creation. Coming soon to an Urban Outfitters near you. Or more likely a Temu near you. But only if one of you can figure out how to make it happen because as much as we want this carpet, we’ve got to get back to blotting. Steal away friends! And remind yourself the next time you spill something that accidents happen and places and clothes are better lived in :)
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Alex&Collin, LANA, Kate, Betsy, ranch pizza (maybe?), neighbors who bring over deviled eggs and pickled onions, the gorgeous weather, our new bird sanctuary & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
EVERYONE HAS TO SELF PROMOTE - NO ONE WANTS TO
The impacts of social media are broad and much argued over but even back when Faris got a publisher for his book in 2014 or so, one of the key determinants of whether they want to take a risk on you is evidence of your existing audience, especially social following. Now that’s mostly about TikTok, which can be tough if you are a writer or musician trying to get attention. “If you have absolutely no knowledge of video creation, good fucking luck.” The labor of making TikToks — and if you want to reach the most people in the shortest amount of time, TikTok is pretty much the only place to go — requires both tedium and skill.”
(Vox)
(BONUS! Faris wrote about this happening back in 2010 and he insists you know about it.)
TWO MINUTES OF THE SIMPSONS
What’s that you say? A Simpsons episode length video essay with innumerable other intercut references explaining in microscopic detail the jokes in the first two episode of one of the best Simpsons episodes of all time? Yes please, thank. Faris has made everyone who has come to the house this week watch this. (YouTube)
THE ORAL HISTORY OF PITCHFORK
I (Rosie) was a huge fan of Pitchfork in the early 2000s, and absolutely loved reading through this oral history of how Pitchfork came to be and why it ultimately got folded into the larger Condé Nast portfolio. (Slate)
Want to chat, comment, question, compliment?
:: AND NOW, DID YOU KNOW THAT ALL OF THESE COME FROM THE SAME PLANT? ::
How old were you when you discovered that all these vegetables are the same plant? Because it’s today years old for us.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @faris is still “tweeting” while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)
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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. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, 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 :)