Welcome to the Sugary Scoop, my free weekly newsletter where I help you see and experience the magic of NYC that I love so much through curated events, experiences, artists, and community stories.

What’s new this week?

March 28th, 2026 marked the first time since October 8th, 2021 that I first hosted a Fine Folk Salon.

5 years had passed just like that.

But before Fine Folk went into hibernation, it made sure to give everyone who attended just enough of a glimpse into what was possible when uncommon character was celebrated through incomparable  artistry.

When I launched Fine Folk post pandemic, it was such a cathartic release coming out of such an isolating time in the city.

Now all these years later, Fine Folk took the stage again once more in a world that oddly feels in many ways more isolated than ever despite our ability to move freely about.

In other words…it’s the perfect time to elevate the Fine Folk in our lives…

I was both excited and nervous at the same time, but I know in my heart of hearts that what I’ve created is special.

…and may the evening’s experience rise to the level of the relationships that brought everyone there in the first place…

Let’s get into the scoop!

Main Character Energy

Back in 2013, I was helping to curate this amazing music salon called Buddy’s Room founded by my dear friends Tom Paul and Cassie Freeman.

From the moment we did the first one, we knew there was something special.

With each subsequent salon, I was entrusted with more and more autonomy to shape the gathering into my own unique vision.

Fine Folk was the result.

And while there were steady evolutions with each salon, it was always heading toward one specific thesis:

Character has to be MORE important than money, power, or popularity…

…and that fact should be celebrated through incomparable artistry.

A simple but powerful idea…

The best experiences in life can and should be earned through HOW you show up in the lives of those you care about.

Enough for those you care about to go on the record about you.

Enough for those that are deeply grateful for you to bear inspired testimony.

…that was the ONLY way to experience the unique salon.

And boy was it some moving stuff…

Stories of resiliency through debilitating sickness, helping another land a life-changing job, a true random act of kindness that became a decade long friendship, inspiring effusive romantic love in all its varieties and so much more…

What Fine Folk brought out and put on full display was indiscriminate humanity…told by the people that were affected by it directly.

As it turns out you earned your ticket before ever walking in the door.  (which by the way is COMPLETELY donation based).

It was a radical idea.

But just look around you.  Is it really?

Maybe it only seems radical because we’ve gone SO far off the deep end, acculturating ourselves on things that shouldn’t be the priority.

When I look around, I bear witness to a veritable madness.

The erosion of culture is happening before our very eyes in a world where we’ve nearly ceded all but a fraction of our humanity in the name of ROI, superficial proximity to power, follower count, convenience and efficiency.

To that I say:

We tend to think of things in dollars, not sense.  Tell me, how do you calculate the beauty of an inspired heart and mind?  And so if the trade off is a more modest financial and/or personal gain in exchange for additional joy, empathy and curiosity generated within a person(s)…that’s a deal I’ll take any day.

We live in a world of a vampiric disposition.

Who you know has become a currency baited about like cheap tackle inviting people to leech off of.

You have social clubs where potential members are scrutinized for their wealth and influence and members are actively encouraged not to socialize with each other, merely covet from afar…as with any public looking in.

A society cannot remain healthy if only a sliver of the people get the lion's share of what is available (sound familiar? I bet it does)

Rather than getting ahead, I’d like to focus on getting behind the people we care for.  The focus shouldn’t be on who you know, or what they can do for you, but WHY you know them...and more importantly still choose to stay in each other’s lives.  Once that question is answered, the floodgates should be open for arts and culture to permeate and fill all the cracks and crevices to allow our society to begin healing.

There’s a certain vulgarity to the nature of social media as it exists today.  It serves to conflate our interest in connection with this odd desperation for validation, which breeds all kinds of questionable behavior in the pursuit of false adulation through the skewed lens of scarcity. We gotta get back to seeing people as they are,  appreciating them as they are and not as a body count they can brag about and sell off of.

Everyone knows if you want an amazing dish, sometimes you gotta spend days preparing it.

Similarly, maybe there’s places or events to experience in the world that you can only get to through inconvenient transfers, delays, and modes of transportation but are unique beyond comparison.

These are easy concepts to understand, right?  

So why is it that this does not translate fully to our understanding when it comes to culture?

Brands and individuals alike aim for the lowest common denominator in general practice to, “get to where they need to” in as easy and quick a way as possible.

Arts & culture is the slow food for our collective souls.  So is our humanity. There is no rushing some things and many times there are no shortcuts.  We really need to get that through our heads.

And so with all that said, this is the line I am drawing in the sand, the hill I’m willing to die on.

The stakes are at an all time high, and I’m willing to assert every ounce of my passion, empathy and skills to induce a cultural awakening.

We’re better than this…

…and I’m going to show everyone just how incredible we are when we are inspired to be.

Sugary 🍬

New Museum (Re-Opening)

It took 3 years for us to get to this moment, and on March 21st the New Museum re-opened its doors to the public.

I was privileged enough to attend the opening day, opening hour of the momentous occasion and quickly dove right into the belly of the beast of this metallic monstrosity with its additional 60,000 sq. feet of explorable space after the successful Frankensteining of two adjacent buildings together.

In a bold choice, the museum chose to string together the entire space into one overall exhibition entitled, “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” which basically explores technological change and its impact on what our perceptions are as to what it means to be human.

There are multiple perspectives presented in a mashup of visions of how humanity co-exists with, integrates into and violates its own sense of self.

Everything from the poignant to the whimsical and everything in between is on display here and across all mediums…

It’s a LOT.

But a cabinet of curiosities worth exploring as artists of the contemporary and yesteryear have been curated for their hot takes on the subject.  

It’s fascinating to contemplate as you digest this melange of artistic fiber and is certainly a boldly relevant topic to open on…

…an exhibition about the future as the museum itself looks towards a new future of its own.

Definitely take a moment and check this all about.  

The future is NOW, simultaneously the past, present and future and we’re all here for it…

🍬 Sugary

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Thank you for taking the time to read to the end!

I hope you found something inspiring and meaningful in my content and until next time, explore the possibilities of NYC.

-Sugary

🍰🍭🍩🍦🍫🍪🍨🧁

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