The Essential List: Angela Natividad
Angela Natividad’s books game is strong. Gaiman, Pratchett, Dahl, Pullman. The Californian might be based in Paris these days, but she’s talking our language. From her strong opinions of notebook brand to an exquisite taste in graphic novels, if it involves sheaves of paper and a spine Angela knows the score.
Maybe it’s a writer thing? Angela has written for Adforum, Adweek and is currently doing her thing with Muse By Clio – alongside her day job as COO and co-founder of leading esports agency Hurrah. And did we mention she’s also written her own book – with Bill Green and Darryl Oh – Generation Creation.
Lifestyle
o Place of birth: Santa Barbara, CA
o Hometown: Now? Paris. Back in California? The Bay.
o Staycation: Cannes. I end up there about four times a year, and I’ve really come to love it as a second home.
o Vacation: St. Malo and Corsica. We go pretty much every year.
Here’s my most recent shot of St. Malo, a walled Medieval city in France with a very cool history. Its first known slogan, from before the 1200s, I believe, was ‘Cave Canem’ - beware of dogs. This is because they used to close the city around 10pm. And though it was surrounded by water and a huge wall - making it essentially impregnable - they took one extra precaution: Letting dogs loose out on the beach at night. So gangster. The dogs still feature on the city’s manhole covers.
o Pet: Our savage cat, Steve. He died earlier this year.
o Place of work: Hurrah.gg. Real talk: They’re family, basically.
o Place of workout: I like to run along the Seine.
o Side project: MusebyCl.io, some personal writing, and studying pre-colonial Philippine beliefs. Witchcraft generally. Fun fact: In Philippine paganism, words are the strongest type of spell. A story goes that Bathala, a Philippine Zeus, engaged Jesus—who attempted to baptise him—in Jedi battle involving magical words. Bathala finally relented, but only permitted Jesus to baptise his little finger. It was a subversive way of saying Catholicism is just a convenience the old gods deigned to put on. Another fun fact: The Philippine national hero is José Rizal, a writer who cast light on Spanish colonialism’s impact on identity. Among certain communities he’s regarded as a saint, a magical icon himself. The power of words!
o Mode of transport: I like my feet, and the train.
o Bonus travel essential: AKG headphones, a notebook and a fountain pen.
Culture
o Artist: Agnes Arellano
o Musician: The Hieroglyphics (shout-out to Oakland!) and my husband and I are listening to an awful lot of Angèle lately.
o Commercials / music video director: Emma Westenberg, who directed Janelle Monáe’s ‘PYNK’. It takes these very feminine tropes and turns them into something deliciously brutal; it’s delightful.
I also love Big Data’s latest music video, directed by GHOST+COW. It doesn’t feel like a music video at all! And it’s so wicked. L1ZY, the name of the AI assistant, is also the name of the band’s lead singer.
o Film director: Guillermo del Toro. I like that his monsters have pathos. Guy Ritchie’s pretty cool, too.
o Photographer: So many in the Instagram age! I like Claire Alexandra Powell - her work is Miss Havisham meets the Haunting of Hill House - and Yvan Rodic, who does travel photography, but captures people, not landscapes. Here’s a photo he took in Bombay:
o Film: Almost Famous and Snatch. I watch them when I’m sad.
o Series: ‘Buffy’ (yes, still!). I also like ‘The Good Place’ and ‘Sex Education’... and I’m surprised by how much I like ‘The OA’. Even the second season.
o Commercial: Levi’s ‘Painter’, directed by Michael Bay, is my all-time favourite ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPaYk2dnDhM
o Music video: Lauryn Hill’s ‘Doo-Wop (That Thing)’ informed how I feel about seeing music ever since. I used to run home to catch it on TV. I watched it over and over.
o Video game: Monument Valley, parts one and two. Final Fantasy VII also holds a special place in my heart.
o Board game: Do puzzles count? I’m bad at playing competitive games with people. I get really angry. Puzzles are safer.
o Book: How do I begin! The ‘His Dark Materials’ series by Philip Pullman. Garth Nix’s ‘Sabriel’ series. Monica Furlong’s ‘Juniper’ series. Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ was the first book I finished, then started reading over, repeatedly. ‘Buffett’ by Roger Lowenstein - I wish Warren Buffett was my grandpa. ‘I Am a Mathematician’ by Norbert Wiener. ‘Thinking in Systems’ by Donella Meadows. ‘Women Who Run with the Wolves’ by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Pretty much anything by Claire North, but especially ‘Touch’ and ‘The Sudden Appearance of Hope’. Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’, and ‘The Graveyard Book’. Scratch that - anything by Neil Gaiman. (Also Terry Pratchett. Their shared work, ‘Good Omens’, still rings in my ears!) Also, ‘Generation Creation’, which I wrote with Bill Green and Darryl Ohrt, who passed late last year. They’re my best friends, and we worked hard to make something unique and special.
o Graphic novel: ‘Saga’ by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. ‘Monstress’ by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg’s ‘Death’ series is cool, too. Oh, and Rumiko Takahashi: ‘Ranma ½’ and ‘Maison Ikkoku’!
o Podcast: Articles of Interest, 99% Invisible, 10% Happier, Simplify, Endless Thread, Chiffon Le Podcast, La Poudre, Game Scoop!, Generation XX, Quoi de Meuf?, The Hidden Brain, Radio Lab.
o Newspaper: Financial Times, The Economist, The Guardian, Esports Insider, Le Monde, The Globe and Mail. Martin Bryant’s Big Revolution newsletter is good, and Hurrah’s Patch Notes, a nice weekly primer on stuff that happened in esports, with context for people who aren’t necessarily from the sector.
o Magazine: The Gentlewoman, The Happy Reader, and Smith Journal.
o Bonus culture essential: See art and do stuff. The last exhibit I saw was Floy Quinto’s ‘Anting-Anting’, an exploration of pre-colonial Philippine talismans and charms. The next one I’ll see is ‘Computer Grrrls’, an exhibit that explores the intersection of tech, gaming and gender, from Ada to Alexa.
Food and Drink
o Breakfast: Tea and eggs, pancakes optional.
o Restaurant: Le Moderne, and Mary Celeste.
o Cheap bite: Banh Me Tender. Get a banh mi, spin some albums!
o Working lunch: Primeur - great vegan food, plus a sunny terrace - and Lauretta, which is mostly pizza, but the drinks are fine and also there’s a sunny terrace. #Priorities
o Favourite dish: Fish and rice. Also, tacos.
o Signature dish: I only know how to make one dish well: Poached salmon with white wine… on rice. But my rice game is epic!
o Snack: I have a love affair with Pringles. I am also a big believer in ice cream.
o Guilty pleasure: Gas station coffee.
o Bar: Café Léa and Aux Deux Amis.
o Booze: Bourbon sours. The Big Bad Wolf, a Pic Saint-Loup, is my favourite French wine. The bottle is awesome; it’s got a ferocious wolf on it. Orin Swift’s Palermo is my favourite Napa. (It was The Prisoner, but that ain’t what it used to be.)
o Not booze: Tea. I am obsessed with tea. Mariage Frères is my favourite brand, but I found a local place recently that does great combinations.
o Bonus food: Crab. I like spending half an hour extracting all the meat before I start eating. It’s one of my top food activities. People go crazy watching, which only adds to my joy.
o Bonus beverage: A nice Monaco - on a terrace, naturally. A Monaco is basically beer, lemonade and grenadine syrup. It’s a Shirley Temple for grownups.
Kit
o Phone: iPhone, but that Pixel II sure is clever.
o Computer: MacBook Air, but I recently got an HP Spectre x360 and it’s nifty.
o TV: We have a Panasonic Smart TV that’s slowly sliding into obsolescence, but I refuse to change it. I’m tired of planned obsolescence.
o Headphones: AKG Y50BT. For running, I used to use Aftershokz Trekz, which sends sound through your bones so you can keep your ears free to ambient noise. I broke them, though.
o Camera: I don’t know anything about cameras. Leicas are nice…?
o Soundsystem: We’ve got a cute Sonos speaker at home. That’s about all I know about sound systems.
o Pen/pencil: I have a nice mechanical pencil for taking notes inside books. Apart from that I use a Tombow Zoom 101 - a carbon fibre fountain pen - and the Cross Century II, made of silver but surprisingly light. I use medium nibs; fine ones are better but I break them all the time...
o Where you document an idea: A lot of notebooks, and the notepads on my computer and phone. Sometimes I use the dictaphone feature but I often forget to listen back. Also, talking into a dictaphone makes me feel like a douche.
o Casual clothing: I’m trying to bring baggy jeans back. My success thus far is middling.
o Smart clothing: Wide black slacks, dresses with interesting features, high heels with soles added so I don’t bloody slip all the time.
o Footwear: I’ve got these chic high-heeled ankle boots from All Saints with thick, Timberland-looking soles that look like they could crush skulls. I also got Arkk sneakers recently because Instagram kept punting them at me. They’re cool, but sometimes they feel like dad shoes.
o Watch: Filippo Loreti automatic, the Venice rose gold edition. Can’t be fucked with disposable batteries. I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns.
o Collection: The Little Prince is one of the most-translated books in the world, so I’ve asked people to start gifting me a version, dedicated on the inside, when they travel. Darryl gave me one from Japan with a beautiful dedication on the inside; my friend Caitlin Schiller, who created the Simplify podcast at Blinkist, gave me one in German.
o And for some reason people keep giving me ponchos, which is alarming because I never wanted to be a poncho person. But now I have a lot of ponchos. It’s fine. I’m surrendering to it.
o App: Asana Rebel and 10% Happier. I would not be sane if I didn’t have those apps. Also Feedly, because that’s where I read esports news.
o Website: MusebyCl.io! It’s my home on the internet.
o Favourite social media feed: Instagram is probably the last happy place on the socnets. It’s the only social site I’ve kept on my phone (though I tend to cheat using browsers. But I can’t get rid of browsers! Or can I…?)
o Work program: At Hurrah we’re launching a new organisational model based on the principles of sociocracy. I’m pretty excited about it.
o Digital work tool: Discord.
o Analogue work tool: Leuchtturm1917 notebooks. Don’t use Moleskines! Their paper quality is a garbage can.
o Morning grooming/makeup essential: I recently learned about the magic of lip pencils. So a lip pencil, some gloss and eyeliner, essentially. Seriously though, I wish somebody had told me about lip pencils.
o Bonus kit essential: Tiny pochettes for big handbags, which makes finding - and not losing things - much simpler. And I recently started using handkerchiefs again. It’s gross, but also magnificent.
