The brand is called God
Slim-sole sneaker watch continues, preppy-skatery-baggy slappers, a Top Coffee update, rare Kyle Mooney intel & more
Our Home Goods Report, full of things to enliven the place you live, and stores where you can find them, is here.
Mach 3+ city intel for traveling the entire planet is here.
The B.L.I.S.S. List — a definitive rundown of Beautiful Life-Improving Spyplane Staples, from incense to sweatpants to underwear — is here.
Welcome to Blackbird Spyplane. Today we’ve got:
The best ongoing sneaker collaboration in the game produces a new slim-profile slapper.
New Japanese- and Italian-made clothes that go extremely “1987 J. Crew Mode.”
Our No. 1 coffee beans in the world recently became coppable in bulk, at cut rates — we have a Spygourmand Due Diligence update on that front.
More unbeatable recon!
Let’s get to it —
Starting with a brand-new installment of V.I.P. R.A.D.A.R., the recurring Spyplane feature where Vibey Illustrious People share Rare and Dope-A** Recommendations. Today’s Vibey Illustrious Person?
Comedian Kyle Mooney — an SNL mainstay from 2013-2022, and the director of the A24 horror-comedy Y2K.
Kyle has long struck us as a cool and very funny dude. I (Jonah) think we have a few friends in common. So we were intrigued the other day to hear that he was retiring from film & TV to focus on his true passion of music, changing his name to Kyle M, and putting out an album called The Real Me.
It’s 19 minutes long. One song is called “Digital Society,” where Kyle bemoans our screen-clogged contemporary lives, and offers a solution we respect:
There’s good news: I got a cool gadget for sale
It’s all charged up, processor never fails
It was made by a cool creator
The brand is called ‘God’ and the gadget is nature
In case you suspect the entire thing is a joke, Kyle promises that “there is nothing comedic about the Kyle M project.”
In that same spirit of earnestness, he sent us 3 recommendations off the beaten path, presented here in a Special SpyMultimedia Presentation where you can read Kyle’s recommendations and listen to him read them for you:
Stanley Kubrick
“Although I’m focusing on music right now, I still find inspiration in all forms of art. Stanley Kubrick was a talented filmmaker from our past. His films always used interesting camera angles, characters and soundtrack music as well (which always speaks to me). Check out ALL his stuff. Trust me.”Jazz
“People might not take me for a fan of jazz, but I absolutely LOVE it. It can be more experimental, and I find it inspiring how it doesn’t always follow the rules. This is something I try to do with my music.”History stories
“My friend recently gave me a book on old history, and it is AMAZING! It’s interesting to see how times have changed. I would recommend it to anyone.”
Kyle Mooney is on IG here. The Real Me is on Bandcamp here.
Meanwhile —
For the last few years, outfits with “1987 J. Crew energy” have looked as good as they’ve looked since 1987. Vexingly, and strangely, finding actual circa-’87 J. Crew clothes secondhand is hard — Gap and Polo gems from the same era abound, but good old Crew is scarce.
However, some tasteful clothesmaking Spyfriends just put out a tight spring capsule of pieces that nail the look: chill, baggy, preppy, skatery, and made in Japan and Italy to boot.