It’s a classic Kimi and Lou episode of best laid plans. They start by talking about how professional creatives are now digital janitors to AI slop, then quickly get lost in the woods talking about Universal Basic Income, Phoebe Waller Bridge’s Flea Bag and myriad other topics loosely tied to the main topic. “Loosely” is doing a lot of work in that previous sentence.

Mentioned in This Episode 

• Flea Bag by Phoebe Waller Bridge
• No Time to Die featuring Daniel Craig
• The Guardian: Freelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup
• Hurt by Nine Inch Nails
• Brandy Hellville and The Cult of Fast Fashion

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• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Music: Kieran Kerwin
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

I’ll admit to having a ridiculously pedestrian perception of classical music artists. Pianists specifically. Call it lack of direct exposure, or maybe too much Bugs Bunny when I was a kid. Or maybe, maybe, maybe it’s the awe I feel when I watch a pianist play with a supernova-like intensity that I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced. Is this envy? Insecurity? Probably a blend.

My next guest, classical pianist Dorothy Robbins, was kind enough to set me straight when she visited the Chaos & Creativity headquarters in Marin county.

Dorothy Robbins is the epitome of talent and grace. A confident young woman with a warm and friendly disposition that mildly contradicts what one might expect when looking at her long list of accomplishments. Which—so far—have culminated in her recently received Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance. It turns out the political dynamics of the classical music space are not that dissimilar from the ones found in Hollywood. Unexpected, but understandable when you look at the competitive nature of the landscape.

What became abundantly obvious after my conversation with Dorothy is the pursuit of a career in classical music is meant for the talented and the hyper-driven. It starts with a choice that’s made at a young age, Dorothy was ten when she started. What follows is a relentless pursuit of perfection. Classical music is a lifestyle choice that requires superhuman dedication for a very long run.

Mentioned in This Episode

• Leopold
• Whiplash, written and directed by Damien Chazelle 
• Dorothy Robbins on Instagram

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Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Music: Kieran Kerwin
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

We’ve all been there. Stuck in traffic, running late, woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Caught a mood from somebody else. Barista didn’t quite get your morning coffee right. And what started as a crap moment begins to seem like a crap day, a crap week, a crap life. You. Are. Spiraling. You know you might pull other people in with you. What happens next? In this minisode, Kimi and Lou share their secret inner sages’ insights into pulling out of emotional tailspins before minor mood changes become major meltdowns. But most importantly — if you take nothing else away from listening — remember never, ever to get in the way of Lou and his morning latte. And also, don’t give Kimi too much espresso. 

Mentioned in This Episode

• Red Whale Coffee, San Rafael CA

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Be cool, be classy, subscribe to email updates. You'll be the first to know when a new episode drops and you'll also receive our quarterly newsletter Memos to the Chaotic & Creative.

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Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Music: Kieran Kerwin
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

If you look at map of Los Angeles, you’ll see where I used to live on Kittyhawk Avenue is in close proximity the airport. There was a hide-a-key near the back door. If you knew me, or knew someone who knew me, you were welcome to stay— on the couch if I was in town, or in the bedroom if I was out of town.

If you stayed more than two nights, compensation was a bottle of wine or bourbon. That included epic breakfasts if I didn’t have an early call time on any given morning.

Another quality of my place was the lack of street cleaning restrictions. Many of my friends would plan their departure and arrival times around my schedule so they could park their car in front of my place (free) and have a short visit before traveling. I was always happy to do an airport run which took no more than fifteen minutes round trip.

With all people in and out, Kittyhawk, or Lou’s LAX Lounge as it was often affectionately called, morphed into a spontaneous gathering hub. I’d throw together last-minute dinner parties at long tables thrown up in a backyard that abutted La Tijera boulevard.

In this episode of Chaos & Creativity Kimi and I remember the Kittyhawk days and how those spontaneous gatherings would lead to creative conversations and ideas that would inspire music, videos, and photos. We also go deep on why AI will never replicate or replace the simple act of getting together.

*Note: Kimi sounds a little funny in this episode. We had an audio glitch, but we still wanted to share the content. Thanks for listening.  

Mentioned in This Episode:

The piece by Thomas Flight about how AI can't make creative decisions.

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

Miranda Lee Richards

See the image of Miranda on our episode blog post.

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Be cool, be classy, subscribe to email updates. You'll be the first to know when a new episode drops and you'll also receive our quarterly newsletter Memos to the Chaotic & Creative. 

Subscribe now.

Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Music: Kieran Kerwin
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

It’s three o’clock in the afternoon. I’ve just arrived home from another sophomore day at a new high school I started attending only a few weeks earlier. Melding into this new society as an outsider isn’t going poorly, but it has its challenges. On the turntable of my father’s hi-fi is the just released album Moving Pictures from Rush.

The opening song Tom Sawyer, a song about individualism, personal autonomy, and refusing to conform to society's expectations becomes my guide and my light during this awkward time of transition. It encourages me to hold onto my integrity and keep things on my terms as I integrate into the new school. I could’ve never guessed this experience would ultimately become a template for my life.

I’ve often wondered if Tom Sawyer would have had the same emotional resonance if I listened to it on sonically inferior ear buds. Given my recent experience into the audiophile space, I don’t think so.

The word audiophile conjures a sense of elitism. A rarefied club for obsessive people with healthy bank accounts who have arcane knowledge of specialized audio gear.

Our next guest thinks that’s the wrong way to look at things. He believes anyone loves music and cares how it sounds is an audiophile. Through his YouTube channel, A British Audiophile, Tarun offers expert advice in a remarkably approachable way. He conveys guidance to people like me who are just starting their audiophile journey but have a limited budget. That said he also appeals to the fanatics who do invest in top end components. The stuff that will make you drool with envy, but also admiration owing to the exquisite engineering driven by a fervor for sonic purity.

In a phrase: Tarun’s passion is for maximizing the listener’s experience through a combination of practical advice and knowledgeable guidance about gear. He believes that sometimes listening to music is a spiritual experience, as it was, however unknowingly, to me back in high school. An experience that shaped my life as I’m sure music in someway does for everyone reading this.

Mentioned in This Episode

• A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond
• Check out Tarun's suggestions for the beginning audiophile.

Want More Chaos & Creativity? Subscribe!

Be cool, be classy, subscribe to email updates. You'll be the first to know when a new episode drops and you'll also receive our quarterly newsletter Memos to the Chaotic & Creative.

Subscribe now.

Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Music: Kieran Kerwin
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

In this week’s minisode: Lou offers to write a treatment for a screenplay with a spectacular premise and a really good story. Kimi randomly gets cast in a short film and is relieved when it gets canceled. Drawing on decades of experience as creative professionals, Kimi and Lou share how to ask the right questions when given the “opportunity” to work for free, when trade feels like a valuable exchange, when saying yes is stupid, and how to say no when it needs to be said. 

Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

Until I met three time academy award nominee Tom Myers, it never crossed my mind that a blank page to a writer is total silence to a sound designer. That something as subtle as a dog barking in the distance in a movie is as intentional a choice as the more conspicuous murmuring of a populated cafe underneath the dialog of actors in a scene. The deeper Myers and I dug into what he does for a living at Skywalker Sound, the more I realized that sound design and sound mixing are forms of aural magic performed by wizards. Subtlety is art, ethos and praxis in this enchanting world. A world where the latitude between not enough and too much is shockingly narrow and requires good ears, a rich imagination and clever, clever instinct.

Links:

The Wilhelm Scream

The Last Kings of Hollywood

Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

Close your eyes. Listen. Which sounds are soothing? Which ones drive you up a tree? Currently, outside my house there’s a mocking bird that’s making me a little crazy. But in the distance the sound of a freight train whistle is eliciting feelings of happiness. No doubt because of an experience I had around trains when I was 12. Bring that train sound two miles closer, it would probably annoy me to no end. Close, far, types of birds, types of trains, all of nature—this is Dr. Stéphane Pigeon’s world. And he’s built a way to bring it to the public on his site MyNoise.net.

From his days as an eighteen-year-old sound engineer for Roland synthesizers to recording the subtle voices of the natural world, Dr. Pigeon reflects on the art of crafting complex soundscapes, the beauty of silence, and how his work can invite you into the deeply personal search for the perfect sound.

Links:

https://mynoise.net/

https://perthirtysix.com/how-the-heck-do-synthesizers-work

Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Editor: Alexandra Covey
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

Big changes are afoot at Chaos & Creativity, as our long time producer and good friend Claire Duncan moseys down the road of life to her next big thing. We wish her nothing but the best.

Lest Kimi and Lou be left alone too long without supervision, we’re excited to announce the arrival of our new producer Cheramie “CJ” Johnson. We’re also thrilled to welcome Alexandra Covey to the podcast editing bay. She’ll be cutting together Chaos & Creativity as well as our sister podcast Mothers of Creativity.

In this episode: Everything Feels Legit—everything ends up on the nose as Kimi and Lou utilize an outline to attempt episode cohesion. What results is an extra dose of chaos, with Kimi and Lou covering everything from fellating a lightsaber to Y2K fashion and Facebook regrets to the reflecting pool and beyond. Come for the disastrous segues, stay for the synergy, and listen closely for hints of a 2-part series on the art of sound, coming soon.

Mentioned in the episode:

The Chaos and Creativity blog

The Chaos and Creativity Instagram

The reflecting pool debacle

The Last Kings of Hollywood by Paul Fischer

Silo on Apple TV

The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Documentary, Part 2

In this episode, Lou shares about a do-it-yourself project that flopped, revealing that 1) acoustics is an art form, and 2) he's terrible at acoustics. 

So Lou and Kimi talk about which skills are worth learning as creative professionals, and what's important to delegate out. Reflecting on their younger years, they wonder what happened to the time and energy they once had to learn new skills from scratch. Ultimately, they discover that creative maturity brings the very-punk discernment to know what's worth learning and what's best left to the experts.

Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Cheramie Johnson
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast

This week on Chaos & Creativity, we’re joined by photographer and visual artist William Waterworth. His work feels like scenes from an old film — dark, cinematic, and full of emotion. We talk about why he prefers shooting out in nature instead of a studio, how literature and art inspire his photography, and why he looks for real character over the “perfect” model.

We also get into film vs. digital photography, creating timeless black-and-white images, and what it means to make art that actually feels something in a world full of content. If you’re into photography, fashion, creativity, or visual storytelling, this is a really good one.

Check out more of Will’s work:

• Instagram: @willwaterworth
• Website: William Waterworth 

Connect with the Show

• Hosts: Kimi Recor and Lou Lesko
• Producer: Claire Duncan
• Instagram: @chaosandcreativitypodcast