This week I visit Eric Aleman, owner of the storied King of Kings Barber Shop in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I’ve been going to him for a couple years and it’s always an odyssey which begins on my scalp and ends in my heart.
Eric, like a lot of good barbers, is able to step in and out of conversation. He’ll talk if you want to talk. Or he’ll just step back and keep working on your hair. That’s part of why I like him.
He’s not only a really solid barber, he’s also a talented lyricist, hip-hop artist/ whatever you want to call it. He’s a founding member of BLKLYST. Who you can check out playing at Littlefield’s or here on youtube.
If you listen real close here you can hear him shaving my neck at one point. It’s pretty hard to talk w a knife to your neck, but I did my best.
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SN4:EP2 “Sweat Lodge”
Adrian Lambrinos invited me to a sweat lodge ceremony in April and it was such a powerful experience it shut me up for about 9 months. This is my attempt to take you through it with me. Glad to be back. -
SN1:EP1 “Living out Loud”
The inaugural episode of this podcast. (Originally “What’s Your Yarn Worth? w/ Andy Farnsworth.”) An honest, unvarnished conversation with James Greco: painter, inner monologue coach, and person I respect and love a whole lot.
There’s literally zero production on this first episode. Just a straight, conversational document. Pretty much every instinct I had at the time told me not to put this out there, but my friend Tasha listened to it and told me not to trust my instincts. It’s advice that served as a guide for all the episodes that have followed. Anti-instincts.I’d say this episode is intense but what’s intense you know? I probably wouldn’t listen to it in front of kids, but maybe you’re running some kind of experiment. Here you go.
You can check out James Greco’s work here
[Correction: Just FYI I got a little carried away in this one when I was talking about the baby-smuggling grade school teacher. I actually didn’t have her as a teacher. It was my sister that had her. Also, the teacher in high school I was talking about was actually “Mrs. Mishler” not Mueller. Don’t know why I said those things.]
