Phil Tan’s minimalist recording studio— located in a converted barn at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, where he serves as Director of the Music Recording Program at Callanwolde’s Rick Baker School of Music and Music Recording— is a welcome refuge as lightning flashes, the skies roil and sheets of rain are blowing sideways outside....
One Saturday back in March, at Little Five Points clothing store Wish, I tried on my first pair of sneakers that cost more than $50. The Fenty Puma was designed by R&B-pop superstar Rihanna, which was one of her first tasks as Puma's new creative director. It looked like the sneaker version of the combat boots I wore that day. “Uh oh,” I muttered when I saw my reflection. This was me reckoning with the price tag: $180 and my first brush with a cultural phenomenon so prominent that it is now being examined in a museum exhibition....
