Five minutes after meeting up in his hotel lobby we took the elevator down one floor to the parking garage. I’d only met the car’s owner once before but was struck once again by the sense of motion and restlessness he exudes, like he isn’t a person you could imagine sleeping. Anyway, I was in town for work, but was sneaking in a ride in the Singer he had just taken delivery of the day before and as we crossed the overly polished floors of the hotel in Beverley Hills the car was tucked into a corner, blocked by a column. There is an electronic hum moments before the engine turns over, a kind of waking up that happens before the explosion of exhaust noise, which bounced around the walls of the parking garage.
So I’m 20 feet underground in Beverly Hills, laughing like an idiot wondering, how the hell do you get in a car that expensive. All the sudden I felt like Edward Scissorhands clumsy and dangerous, and opened the door with the care of a surgeon removing a gallbladder. Finally settled in, I had to wonder if I should have taken my shoes off before sitting down?
After some u-turns and wrong turns we made it onto Mulholland and as the accelerator neared the floor and my heart rate spiked above 150bpm, I wondered if maybe this was the best cure for depression.
We stopped at an overlook to take photos and I couldn’t help but notice that while the engine was cooling down, my heart was still racing. Just looking at the car elicits a reaction, it’s like seeing someone particularly famous, your autonomic nervous system spikes and I had to think that maybe that’s what makes these cars so special, that they are, well, special. Only 75 exist, only 35 will make it to the US and I’ll probably never see one again in my life, but I’ll never forget that drive and my sweating palms and stupid smile and a perfect thing that a group of people made because they wanted to see if they could.
Recent roll of film on the new Leica M6 TTl
While in Prague, we also had the chance to take a ride on the Four Season’s boat they have for guests. The captain brought champagne and homemade pretzels and for an hour we had the best view of the city from it’s famous river.
while in Prague, we stayed at the Four Seasons there, which is an incredible complex of buildings from ancient to new construction that sit right on the river. We could wake up and watch the whole city do the same from the window. Amazing.
On the Charles Bridge with Kristin
View from dinner at Kampa Park
Day 1 in Prague was a little beer, a little stroll.
As I look back over the arc of my life, I see not a string of victories but rather a long line of opportunities. I was, at every important juncture in my life, provided an opportunity to prove myself. Those opportunities have shaped my past, present and surely my future. This realization came on a run in Central Park 10 years ago, but what took longer to realize was that those opportunities aren’t offered to everyone, that the scales aren’t balanced. See, it’s easy to attribute your wins to “hustle” or “crushing it”, it’s easy to build up your mythology and easier still to start believing in it. What is harder is to look at your little slice of success and understand that while your hard work and hustle DID matter, they wouldn’t have mattered if you couldn’t apply them to those opportunities you got, and harder still to admit that those opportunities were likely granted because of your station in society, not your innate ability. I love the influencer space because it can, at best, democratize opportunity and give chances to people based on the strength of their vision, and not the depth of their personal networks. Sadly, you don’t need to look too deep into the industry to realize that’s not what’s happening, you don’t need to listen that hard to hear the calls for a more diverse, fair system. I am really proud that Fohr has launched the Freshman Class, a program that is built to promote diversity in the influencer space. Diversity of skin color, body type, age, sexual orientation and focus. We are putting our money where our mouth is and selecting 10 voices from the community to come to New York, stay in the Four Seasons, network with brands and influencers and learn from some of the industry’s best. We already have nearly 850 applications and it’s been so heartwarming to see all of your applications and testimonials. If you haven’t yet applied the link is in my profile. PS, this photo is from one of those opportunities that changed my life, when @erikabearman asked me to shoot the @oscardelarenta FNO party.
