The Essential List: Miky Wolf
Miky Wolf's working hours are spent at Final Cut's New York offices, where he plies his trade as an editor and close collaborator with the likes of Autumn de Wilde (someone he also considers a close friend). Outside of work though, you can find him up to all manner of things. Hanging upstate at mates' houses. Skiing. Watching NHL or a Broadway show. Driving to Canada in search of the perfect dog (spoiler, he may have nailed that one). You might bump into him on the one train with said dog. Her name is Lola and she is a Canadian Goldendoodle and you can see pictures of her below.
Get to know Miky (and Lola) better his Essential List below!
Lifestyle
o Place of birth: Cleveland Heights, Ohio
o Hometown: Washington Heights, Not Ohio
o Staycation: Early morning walks along the River with my pup. Coffee and crossword. Dinner with fam at any Hillstones.
o Vacation: Cold: Anywhere we can Ski. Warm: Martha’s Vineyard.
Cold
Warm
o Pet: Lola. She’s a Canadian Goldendoodle. She’s petite. Tobi (my son) and I flew to Toronto, rented a car and drove due west into rural Ontario to pick her up. We wanted a nice dog. And we figured all Canadians are nice.
"Nice"
o Place of work: Final Cut New York
o Place of workout: Basement Gym in our apartment. Just close enough to get me going.
o Side project: Work: Documentary about Rose Styron. Home: Figuring out different configurations for my storage locker. If I can’t store it my wife tosses it...so I have to get creative.
o Mode of transport: 1 train (with Lola)
o Bonus travel essential: We have enough friends upstate that we can bounce from house to house and not feel the need to have our own! (Thanks guys)
Culture
o Artist: Vermeer (the way he handles light gives me goosebumps).
Vermeer
o Musician: Paul Simon. Then and now.
o Commercials / music video director: Autumn de Wilde, friend and collaborator. We’ve been collaborating for around 16 years and have done dozens of music videos and commercials together. One recent highlight is the video we worked on together for Florence and the Machine’s Big God, which just won Best Rock Video of the year at the British Music Video Awards.
Autumn and Miky
o Film director: This changes frequently. At the moment, The Favourite was a smack of inspiration and stellar filmmaking. So Lanthimos is up there. I also tend to like brother teams…The Dardennes, The Coens, The Farrellys...
o Photographer: Autumn de Wilde, again. Yes, I'm biased. But she’s also rad. I have one of her Elliott Smith photos above my console. It inspires me.
An Autumn image of Elliot
o Film: Can watch anytime I have the chance: On The Waterfront, Ice Storm, Annie Hall, Raging Bull, Harold and Maude, The Graduate, Being There, The Verdict, Raising Arizona
o Series: The Wire is quintessential TV. Lately, I’ve been digging Ozark, Schitts Creek, Fauda, Patriot, GOT, The End of the ****ing World, Sex Education.
o Commercial: LOVE the Zoe Kravitz ASMR spot for Michelob Ultra.
Music video: This is America - it was a gut punch.
o Video game: RDR, Fallout, Horizon Zero Dawn. I love how video games have become cinematic escapes. Great way to wind down. My son and I love to play NHL together. I used to beat him.
o Board game: Backgammon obsessed. Also love Euchre.
o Book: At the moment: Razzle Dazzle, Michael Reidel (a little research). Some favourites: Cat’s Cradle, All The Light We Cannot See, The Goldfinch, The Book Thief, Narcissus and Goldmund, The Fervent Years.
o Graphic novel: Not that up on graphic novels, but I used to love the American Splendor comic series. Pekar is a Clevelander. (Go Cavs)
o Podcast: Elvis Mitchell, The Treatment. The NYT, The Daily. And if I dig the guest, the conversation portion of WTF (gotta skip his intro).
o Newspaper (off or online): NY Times, WaPo...I have digital subscriptions to both.
o Magazine: We subscribe to Wired, The New Yorker and Thrasher (my son is a skater).
o Bonus culture essential: See The Band’s Visit on Broadway before it closes April 7th. It only won 10 Tony awards. And a Grammy. (shameless promotion - it’s my brother’s show).
Food and Drink
o Breakfast: Challah French Toast with Maple Syrup. Slays me.
o Restaurant: El Parador on 34th and 1st. Claims to be the oldest Mexican restaurant in NYC. Not sure if that’s true - but it’s run impeccably well. Haven’t had a bad meal there in 15 years.
o Cheap bite: Chicken and Rice from the truck. White sauce and just a dash of hot sauce.
"The truck"
o Working lunch: Falafel from Taim.
o Favourite dish: My mother’s stuffed cabbage. Romanian specialty.
o Snack: I love raw almonds. My fear is one day they will be linked to cancer.
o Guilty pleasure: Homemade brownies.
o Bar: Yes.
o Booze: Bourbon. Love a good old fashioned.
o Not booze: Diet Coke (probably also a guilty pleasure)
o Bonus food: Any kind of pizza.
o Bonus beverage: Vanilla milkshake.
Kit
o Phone: Pixel 2 XL
o Computer: Mac. At work Mac Pro (trash can). At home iMac 5k (4.2ghz i7, 32gb ram, 2tb SSD)
o TV: Vizio (65” and 50”). Love ‘em.
o Headphones: Love my Jabra Elites on the go. I use Sony MDRs at the studio.
o Camera: On my phone.
o Soundsystem: Best I’ve had was a Bryston Amp with KRKs. Currently, Vizio soundbar using Spotify Connect.
o Pen / pencil: Still have the Mont Blanc I was given for my bar-mitzvah.
o Where you document an idea: Google Keep
o Casual clothing: Khakis and a button down.
o Smart clothing: See casual clothing.
o Footwear: Love my New Balance. Been buying the same pair for 10 years.
o Watch: I’ve given up on the watch. Frees me up to look at my phone.
o Collection: I have a fairly decent collection of Playbills from over the years.
o App: NY Times Crossword, Twitter
o Website: Finalcut-edit.com (more shamelessness) Also, I go to Wirecutter.com before I buy anything.
o Favourite social media feed: On Twitter it’s my NY Rangers feed. Huge fan. I use Twitter as an aggregator of all my favourite writers, artists, journalists. Nature is Scary is possibly the best twitter handle ever. Followed closely by Art or Not Art.
Huge fans
o Work program: Avid Media Composer. Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Media Encoder. Davinci Resolve. Soundminer (for SFX). Sound design is everything.
o Digital work tool: My edit system, I suppose.
o Analogue work tool: Pencil and legal pad.
o Morning grooming / makeup essential: Aveeno Body Lotion. Keeps my skin soft and fresh all day long.
o Bonus kit essential: Floss, an extra battery for my phone, an umbrella and some Altoids.
