chatting on the 5th floor of the moma

4th of July in NYC

It is 100 degrees. The city is empty.

It's just me and you.

Strangely lacking the need to work this weekend.

This means getting a coffee to stay and sketching ideas from the week in the basement of Thayer.

When inspiration dwindles, the day poses its question: what shall we do?

We go to a museum.

You know all about the artists. I do not. I've always appreciated art and enjoyed trying to recreate some of my favorites: Rothko, Basquiat, and Mondrian.

At museums and galleries, my attention is split. I find myself equally curious about the artists as I am about the collectors.

Financiers, entrepreneurs, heirs, and heiresses. The stories of the collectors are always fascinating. I love to share them with you.

It's my version of Guy Raz's “How I Built This,” your favorite podcast.

Ken Griffin, Henry Kravis, and David Geffen are today's collectors.

I share how Griffin started Citadel when he was 22, and how it's now the largest hedge fund in the world. How Kravis invented the leveraged buyout, which birthed the private equity industry. And how Geffen forged his UCLA diploma to keep his job at William Morris, then went on to manage John Lennon, Nirvana, Cher, and Aerosmith, and create DreamWorks later in his career.

—

I chuckle. “You are crazy (in the best way).” My cup is full of creative and entrepreneurial inspiration. It is crazy to hear about and see these masterpieces and empires that people make, and hearing their stories makes everything make sense. I wonder how much of their life made sense while they were living it, which moments were the ones where everything was about to happen. And then I wonder what my story is. I wonder if I was too late for my story. Luke tells me my story. Maybe it is easier to tell the stories of other people. I think it is impossible to be too late for your own story. I feel better. We head home from the MoMA, itching to make something.

The air feels heavy and the sun touches every corner of our studio apartment. The heat wave wraps around everything and highlights the deep red wooden shelves and cabinets. We sit on the bed in our underwear eating pizza. We both take a deep breath. The AC is finally starting to spit out cool air. I pull out my computer and proclaim it is time for our first publication entry. The city is empty and feels slow for the first time. We break the silence as we chat and giggle.

xoxo
luke and malvika