He never brags about it, but fashion and beauty editor Sopheak Seng is an extremely talented calligrapher and hand-letterer. By the same token, our English-to-French translator Alexander Guy is a very talented musician, who has just released an album of his live recordings, done at the Vogelmorn Bowling Club in Wellington, New Zealand. Check it out here at Bandcamp.
These are demos, in advance of a soon-to-be-recorded album, Last Call at the South Sea Hotel. Yann le Dorré recorded and mixed, while Alex performed. We found them particularly enjoyable at the office, and for NZ$7, you can enjoy the album, too.
Meanwhile, my foray into ghost-writing in 2021–2 is a finalist in the Business Book Awards this year. Panos: My Life, My Odyssey, written from copious notes and interviews with my friend Panos Papadopoulos, the founder of swimwear label Panos Emporio, has made it there along with other books from the same publishing house, LID Publishing: Great Networking by Alisa Grafton; Leader as Healer by Nicholas Janni; The Bullshit-Free Book by Kevin Duncan; and Onlife Fashion by Philip Kotler, Giuseppe Stigliano and Riccardo Pozzoli. We’re a finalist in the Business Journey Book category. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on May 16 in London.
Little did we know that when we set out to tell Panos’s life story, a project that we had discussed numerous times for many years, that the book would wind up as a finalist at the Business Book Awards. Our aim was to tell a story that would inspire and guide others, one about values and perseverance, while also being very entertaining to read. We can’t wait to find out how we go—we didn’t even know about the awards ourselves, but now we’re finalists, it’s rather exciting!
Jack Yan is founder and publisher of Lucire.