The Pleasure Lists Q&A: Spencer Bailey of The Slowdown
Pleasures, Curated by Spencer Bailey, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Slowdown
We’re back with another installment of
: Pleasures, Curated.I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy getting to know members of the Pleasure Lists community and what makes their Pleasures tick.
Pleasures, Curated by Spencer Bailey, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Slowdown
Spencer Bailey is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the media company The Slowdown and host of the Time Sensitive podcast. A writer, editor, and journalist, he has written at length about architecture, art, culture, and design; contributed to publications such as Town & Country, The New York Times Magazine, and Bloomberg Businessweek; and is the author of several books, including In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials (Phaidon). From 2013 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Surface magazine. Currently, he’s overseeing the editorial direction of a multivolume series of books celebrating The Leading Hotels of the World, to be published by Monacelli; the first, Design: The Leading Hotels of the World, comes out Dec. 4.
Social: @spencercbailey @slowdown.media
Location: New York City
Noguchi
When I first set foot in the Noguchi Museum, in the spring of 2013, I was instantly transfixed. I was there to attend the first-ever Noguchi Award ceremony, which was honoring Norman Foster and Hiroshi Sugimoto. I knew who they were, but—and this seems shocking now—I didn’t know who Isamu Noguchi was. In a way, this naïveté was a blessing. My initial experience with this museum in Queens and Noguchi’s work was purely visceral and decidedly not intellectual. Soon after, though, I started digging deeper into Noguchi’s life and work, and became obsessed. Beyond obsessed, actually.
About a year and a half later, I joined the museum’s board of trustees, which I now co-chair. I started collecting books by, about, or connected to Noguchi, a collection that now stands at 96 titles. I’ve visited his installations and projects around the world, from New Orleans and Detroit to Sapporo and Mexico City. I acquired a rare portrait of Noguchi by Arnold Newman, and my wife, Emma, has since gifted me two more Noguchi portraits, one by Berenice Abbott, the other by Jack Mitchell. We also have six of his Akari light sculptures at home.
In 2021, through a rare-books dealer in Palm Springs, I found a “holy grail” Noguchi object: a signed letter from Frank Lloyd Wright to Noguchi, on Taliesin West letterhead, dated April 16, 1942. It states simply, “My dear Noguchi: At any time I can be of service to you or yours, command me. Sincerely yours, Frank Lloyd Wright.” This was mailed to Noguchi’s studio in Los Angeles just two months after F.D.R. issued Executive Order 9066 that resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans.
In the summer of 2023, I even proposed to my wife at the very stoneyard in Querceta, Italy, where Noguchi once worked and where he created his famous Slide Mantra sculpture. Our wedding cake was modeled on Ziggurat (1968), one of my favorite works in the museum’s permanent collection.
The Noguchi Museum was founded in 1985. I was born the same year. In this sense, we’re growing up together. I feel profound kinship with this awe-inspiring place and this great artist. My deep engagement with his life, legacy, and work continues to be one of the most pleasurable experiences in my life.
The Shokin-tei teahouse at Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto
If I had to pick a favorite building in the world, I think this would be it.
The Okura Tokyo
Japanese simplicity, elegance, tradition, and ingenuity at its finest. This hotel is so exquisite, so well-run, thought-through, and considered, that it seems almost too perfect for this world.
Drumming
I started drumming around age 11 or 12 and still do. Rhythm is a profound creative release. Just as there’s a “runner’s high,” there’s definitely such a thing as a “drummer’s high.”
Collecting art
I’ve been collecting art for a decade now and have around 40 different works—paintings, photographs, stone and wood sculptures, ceramics. Pictured here, from left, are a 1985 vessel by Toshiko Takaezu, given to my wife and me as a wedding gift; Budding (1998) by Thaddeus Mosley; a flower vase by Shion Tabata; Bean (2022) by Julian Watts; and a 1995 lidded jar by Edmund de Waal. Among my latest finds is a green ceramic teacup by Kitaōji Rosanjin, which I came across at an antique shop in Kyoto.
Clyfford Still Museum
I was born and raised in Denver, so I fully admit that I’m biased, but to me, this ethereal synthesis of concrete, wood, light, and art is perhaps the greatest art museum to be built in the United States in the last 15 years. (Hat tip to its architect, Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works.)
Mountains
Once a Coloradan, always a Coloradan. Mountains are practically in my blood. I pretty much learned to walk and ski at the same time. “Mountain time” is definitely a thing. In subtle ways, time slows and stretches at altitude.
Cooking and eating
I can’t stand the term “foodie,” but I guess I am one. I love to cook, host, and eat, and the NYT Cooking app has to be one of the more-used apps on my phone. I made this coconut-miso salmon curry dish for Emma on our third date, and it definitely helped win her over. Going to the Carroll Gardens farmers’ market is a Sunday ritual for us (the cookies and “Living Bread” from ACQ Bread Co. are my kryptonite), and our neighborhood restaurant go-tos are Montague Diner and Ingas Bar.
Over the past year, my most major life events took place in two of my favorite restaurants. Emma and I chose the Downtown Brooklyn steakhouse Gage & Tollner as our wedding venue (pictured above on our wedding day), and the night before, we had our rehearsal dinner at Eleven Madison Park, where this past spring I also hosted a five-year anniversary dinner for The Slowdown.
Interviewing
I find the conversations I host on Time Sensitive to be incredibly life-giving.
Reading
Few things are more pleasurable than losing oneself in a great book. If there’s one book I’m recommending everyone read this year, it’s The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America by Sarah Lewis.
Writing
Runner’s high, drummer’s high—there’s also “writer’s high.”
What does Pleasure mean to you?
A sensory experience that causes time to slow, stretch, or expand.
Who do you want to see next? Send me suggestions for who to feature in the next Q&A!
What Is “Pleasures, Curated”?
Each week, a new Pleasure-seeker will document their personal Pleasures and ruminate a bit on what Pleasure means to them. True to
style, I keep the list-maker’s je ne sais quoi in as much as I can — only minor editorial changes are made when necessary. I do this intentionally so that the writer’s inner world really comes through. The style of the list says as much about the writer as the list itself.Read Previous Q&A’s:
Why submit a list?
Pleasure Lists are a summary of what you need, want, or have, or see at a particular moment in time. They are a survey, an overview, a summary of the crucial facts of the state of one aspect of your life. It’s a kind of blueprint that can be a guide to the future.
Mull it over and if you’re moved to, send me a list.
Questions? Comments? Send any recommendations or suggestions for what you’d like to see in these newsletters my way. I’d love to hear more about what you’re currently finding pleasure in.
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