Foretaste Nº 19

We’re back with the Foretaste series! This -now very- occasional newsletter offers a deep dive into the minds, habits, obsessions, affairs, and influences of our friends and family.
This edition features our good friend Zack McDonald. Jordi and I had the pleasure of working with Zack a few years ago on Tenue and Bonanza Coffee, where he brought a beautiful layer of poetry to the brands.
Now, he’s embarked on a new journey, launching an agency that’s already doing some incredible work. Dive in and enjoy!

I’ve recently founded an agency called Chaos x Magic with my partners Nils-Petter Lövgren & Yen Ho. All three of us are ex-KesselsKramer and trying to do incredible work in the most fun and interesting ways possible. It’s a blast so far. We’re working on projects for LEGO, IKEA and Absolut at the moment. The name kinda sorta comes from…

The KLF: Chaos, Magic And The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds by John Higgins. An incredible book about creativity, ideas and brilliant insanity. A huge inspiration on our agency. There is a pink 10th anniversary edition I’m rereading with loads of interesting footnotes and side tangents. Highly recommended.

Goliath. I’m a huge Billy Bob Thornton fan from way back, so was super surprised that I totally missed this series from 2016. A cool rootsy soundtrack and a super creepy turn from another of my favorite actors, William Hurt, makes this a really cool watch if you’ve got some hours to kill.

Oasis singles. I’ve gone full nerd mode, as if I’m 15 again. Ordered this really cool Japanese box set of every 7-inch they released. The new Soccer Mommy record, Evergreen, is also fantastic. She does a really nice episode of the Broken Record podcast where she discusses it in detail, which I really enjoyed as well.

Just buckets and buckets of ramen. I guess I need comfort, Japanese style. If you happen to visit Stockholm I can highly recommend Tengu.

Tons of black coffee. Getting a shipment in soon of my favorite Stumptown beans from Portland.

The comeback of one of my favorite brands, Best Made Co. The OG utilitarian hipster clothes and axes founded by the great Peter Buchanan-Smith. Built up and eventually sold to a big company that gutted everything that made it amazing. Against all odds, Peter bought it back and is slowly introducing a few incredible products at a time. Legendary! I want one of everything.

The ongoing question to unplug from the digital world, or at least find a healthy balance. Almost impossible in our profession. I now have what my wife calls “a museum of dumb phones” that I’ve tried but rejected for a variety of reasons. I hope and wish for a team of Apple and Facebook level geniuses to apply the same rigor they have used to get us all hooked, to find an easy solution to bring us all back to some kind of humanity. It’s hard. Sigh. Then again I do love my memes.

The news. Sad but true.

U.S. politics, naturally. But if you can somehow get past the horror, it’s the best season of The Apprentice yet. Just absolutely hilarious. In the darkest way possible, of course. If you need me, I’ll be crying.

Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton, especially the early episodes. The one with Iñárritu is a miracle. A must listen for creatives. This is my version of going to church.

Family life in the Swedish suburbs.

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Thank you Zack 🙇🏻

And here are the quick highlights from the Slacks (in no particular order):

• Into the Wild Universe, by Chris

• The Cure - Songs of a Lost World, via Kimberly

• The Growing Desire For Radical Change by Thomas Klaffke, via Joachim

• Stone Island’s Infinite Colours, a film by Ken-Tonio Yamamoto, via Chris

• How Tyler, The Creator Rewrote The Rules Of Traditional Marketing, via Joachim

• Skee Mask: The Special One, via Erik

• Kiko Kostadinov: Fashion’s Last Great Weirdo, via Chris

• The 30 Best Art Books of 2024, via Joachim

• The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, via Kimberly

• How To Disappear – A Portrait of Radiohead, via Jordi

• The Case for Nike, via Willem

• Sunlight After Dark, via Michael

• Seeking ‘Warmth and Personality’ in the World of High-Priced Pens, via Joachim

• Another Giftguide is coming, but order this one before its too late

• And make sure to spend more money here to fund some hope for better times.

Hope you enjoyed this one - And as always, let’s get Together soon on Slack & IRL!

PS. There are enough bots and ghosts in our lives. We’ve always seen Together&, human and alive, so please enjoy, participate, share and forward this. And we'd love to see you in Slack to discuss things often. If you know people who should join, let us know!