NYK—mag 0425
03. Exploring Paris
Quick notes
- Took the metro across the city almost every day.
- Met a girl with a dope accessory on her hijab, and asked to take her photo – we talked and she told me to go eat at Maslow.
- Ate there later, talked to a photographer from L.A. and Tunisia, and his barber friend. They told me I’d always be welcome in their cities.
- Worked for a while at COMETS Café & Records until a barista gently announced a “laptop-free hour.” Everyone looked up. The room changed for a moment.
- Spent the afternoon at Yoyaku Records - record store, label, café, gallery, and sound system in one. A whole ecosystem in motion.
- People are vibrant and open. Feels like I belong here.
The MaMA convention had a clear structure – talks, showcases, delegates – but the real learning happened in the spaces in between.
Moving through Paris – mostly by metro, sometimes on foot - I started noticing how everything connects. The cafés, the record shops, the venues, the people in transit. Everyone was part of something: a scene, a rhythm, a style, a story. My research happened through organic movement in a way that was never about finding answers, but just about paying attention.
At COMETS, when the barista announced a laptop-free hour, it changed the entire atmosphere. Suddenly the café wasn’t a workspace, but a small community of strangers noticing one another. That gesture – quiet, human, almost invisible – said a lot about how culture grows: through presence, not production.
Yoyaku showed me another version of that same idea. A place that merges commerce, art, and social energy without losing integrity. You could feel that everything there came from love for music, not just a solid business plan. It reminded me that the most resilient ecosystems are the ones where people wear multiple roles and take care of each other’s work.
All of this made me think about how I approach research. I’ve always known that my curiosity works best in motion, but this trip made it clear: to understand culture, you have to be inside of it, even just for a moment. The metro rides, the casual talks, the pauses between events – that’s where the knowledge hides.
I didn’t come home with business cards or new collaborations. I came home with stories and gestures – showing that intuition is a method, and that generosity is still one of the strongest currencies in culture.