Creative

Footer Legal

Main

NavBar

Sections

Topics

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

Register to continue

Talkhouse

Joe Wong is the Los Angeles-based, Milwaukee-raised multi-instrumentalist, podcast host (<a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001wOexcE0IwUcYN0KxCmMu-kihr8RGS3Rr7hGb5xp1kdYpuD1DGWWuMypjMNud656dJjt_qeb7dTowW7N8pidjT9sgfaOVyl5kpZtwW0bBhwMzllBqC-TmHLc2nFM1k-WfmTj5XVOzeHe8Zx4dY0yd7Q==&amp;c=8qr-kN6Sx7tG9tBlUQzHv2TFXQZ5wT8Pn5FjsFLDCuQeVvC18k9dgA==&amp;ch=D8HOLN4DWuMO7JkTaIyv4jDuWu2R2NZ4anq7AOfKL72PH6lShIF1cQ==" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Trap Set</a>) and composer behind buzzworthy shows including Master of None, Russian Doll, Ugly Delicious and Awkwafina is Nora From Queens more. He recently released his Mary Timony (Ex Hex, Helium)-produced debut album Nite Creatures via Decca Records. The album includes an incredible array of guest musicians, including Mary Lattimore, Steven Drozd, Craig Wedren, and more.
(Photo Credit: Priscilla C. Scott)

Joe Wong

Music

Three Great Things: Joe Wong

Grammy-winning artist and producer Knox Fortune has released his highly anticipated sophomore album Stock Child Wonder via Nice Work. The 11-track project features support from indie mainstays from his hometown of Chicago, including Lala Lala, Will Miller of Whitney and Resavoir, Lane Beckstrom of Resavoir, Colin Croom and Jack Dolan of Twin Peaks, Macie Stewart of Ohmme, and Elliot Skinner formerly of Third Story along with Grammy-winning producers Nate Fox and Pomo and Grammy-nominated producers Carter Lang and Pete &#8216;Scum&#8217; Nebula.  The album is a follow up to Knox Fortune&#8217;s highly lauded debut LP Paradise in which he introduced his breezy, addictive sound.

Knox Fortune

Three Great Things: Knox Fortune on Tetris, Sticky Rice, and Biking

Rich Jones is a prolific Chicago artist, community figure, and veteran of the cultural scene. Known for his versatile and evolving style, his latest album How do you sleep at night? finds him returning to his hip-hop roots as he tackles class complacency and complicity under American authoritarianism and the value of human life vs. what’s profitable.
(Photo Credit: Katie Levine)

Rich Jones

Three Great Things: Rich Jones

Shannon Lee is the CEO and Owner of the Bruce Lee Family Companies. Shannon’s mission is to provide access for people to Bruce Lee’s philosophy through education and entertainment. In addition to being the daughter of Bruce Lee, Shannon is the Executive Producer of Cinemax’s Warrior, based on her father’s writings, as well as a singer, actor, producer, speaker, writer, and mother. Her first book, Be Water, My Friend, was published this October. The book explores the philosophies that defined her father’s worldview and looks at how martial arts are a perfect metaphor for personal growth. Shannon also chairs the Bruce Lee Foundation, a 501c3 charity that serves young people by introducing them to martial arts, philosophy, self-discovery, and harmonious living.

Shannon Lee

Film

Three Great Things: Shannon Lee

Jenna Ushkowitz is currently starring in the raunchy comedy 1 Night in San Diego, opposite Laura Ashley Samuels and Alexandra Daddario, which is out now on digital through 1091. She is best known for her role as Tina Cohen-Chang on the award-winning Fox show Glee. She made her Broadway debut in the 1996 revival of The King and I and returned to the Broadway in the Tony Award-winning production of Spring Awakening, and later played Dawn in Tony-nominated musical Waitress. Ushkowitz made her producing debut on Broadway with the revival of Once on This Island, winning her a Tony Award; she has also served as co-producer of Be More Chill, and received a Tony nomination for The Inheritance on Broadway as a co-producer this year. Jenna is the co-founder of Kindred: The Foundation for Adoption, an American foundation to aid adoptees, and released her memoir Choosing Glee, in May 2013.

Jenna Ushkowitz

Three Great Things: Jenna Ushkowitz

Roosevelt is always looking for that special moment. The producer – Marius Lauber – utilizes outstanding electronics, matching club tropes to pangs of melancholy, all wrapped up in gorgeous melodies. Inventive early singles such as “Montreal” led to the outstanding debut album Roosevelt and the bold, addictive follow-up Young Romance, but increased success seemed to take him away from his core desires, from his musical roots. Polydans, his forthcoming album via City Slang / Greco-Roman) has the energy of a club experience, the implicit communication between a musician and the crowd. 
(Photo Credit: Joseph Strauch)

Roosevelt

Three Great Things: Roosevelt

Stand-up comedian, writer and actor Fortune Feimster first made a name for herself on Chelsea Lately. She was a series regular on The Mindy Project and Champions, and has made many guest appearances, including Tales of the City, Dear White People, Claws, Office Christmas Party, and a recurring role on CBS’s Life in Pieces. Amblin recently acquired two features Fortune wrote, Bad Cop, Bad Cop and Field Trip, both of which she is attached to star in. Fortune has performed stand-up on Conan and Late Night with Seth Meyers as well as her own specials on Comedy Central and Netflix; her one-hour standup special Sweet and Salty premiered on Netflix this past January. She currently co-hosts Netflix Radio&#8217;s &#8220;What a Joke with Papa and Fortune&#8221; on Sirius XM, and her voice can be heard on Bless the Harts. She is currently co-starring with Malin Akerman, Bella Thorne and Alec Baldwin in <a href="https://www.quiverdistribution.com/chick-fight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chick Fight</a>, out in theaters, on digital and on demand on November 13, and can next be seen in the upcoming films Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Yesday alongside Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez, and Happiest Season, opposite Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Dan Levy, Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza.

Fortune Feimster

Three Great Things: Fortune Feimster

Tunng is Mike Lindsay, Sam Genders, Becky Jacobs, Ashley Bates, Martin Smith, and Phil Winter. On November 6, the British folktronica band released Tunng Presents… DEAD CLUB,  a new album, podcast series, and conversation on death and grief.
(Photo Credit: Lilias Buchanan)

Tunng

Three Great Things: Tunng

Late at night, as the world felt upside down in quarantine and when a hush fell over the house after his kids went to bed, Donovan Woods got to work on his latest album, Without People. In a makeshift recording studio at his Toronto home, the acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter tracked his vocals and guitar alone and then emailed files to producer James Bunton. As Woods’ new songs took shape, backing musicians sketched out their own parts in isolation from their respective homes.For an album made so piecemeal,  Without People (out November 6 on Woods’ Meant Well label) is alive with intimacy and connection at a surreal time when we’re all in desperate need of both. So much of its allure and power is rooted in how Woods connects with his collaborators.
(Photo Credit: Maya Fuhr)

Donovan Woods

Three Great Things: Donovan Woods

It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You carries harmonic and emotional heft in the vein of Patty Griffin’s Flaming Red or Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark. There’s an open-heartedness in the Nashville-based Jillette Johnson’s songs, the kind of deeply experienced inner peace that results from a journey through vulnerability, pain, and struggle to gratitude, forgiveness, and, ultimately, acceptance. “I was in control,” Johnson sings on the album’s opening track, but “that was many moons ago.” Johnson’s a rare gem in Nashville, having written the entirety of It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You alone, running contrary to the common Music City practice of co-writing. She did, however, find herself drawn to the city’s creative adage of “three chords and the truth” — though in Johnson’s case, it’s more like a dozen chords, especially on the harmonically elegant title track.
(Photo Credit: Betsy Johnson)

Jillette Johnson

Three Great Things: Jillette Johnson

The Brooklyn-based, Baltimore-raised songwriter Aaron Frazer first came into the international spotlight as multi-instrumentalist and co-lead singer for <a href="https://deadoceans.com/artists/durand-jones-the-indications/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Durand Jones &amp; The Indications</a>. He penned some of the group’s most notable tracks, including &#8220;Morning In America,&#8221; and sang lead on &#8220;Is It Any Wonder?&#8221; – the latter an instant sweet soul classic anchored by Aaron’s falsetto, which caught the ear of producer and Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach. Frazer’s debut album, Introducing…, will be out Jan. 8.
(Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen)

Aaron Frazer

Three Great Things: Aaron Frazer

Hong Kong-born writer-director Wayne Wang’s latest film <a href="https://www.outsiderpictures.us/movie/coming-home-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coming Home Again</a>, an intimate family drama starring Justin Chon and Jackie Chung, is now in virtual cinemas through Outsider Pictures. Wang established himself as a Chinese-American storyteller with his first two films, the acclaimed indies Chan is Missing (1982) and Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985). Given his upbringing in Hong Kong by traditional Chinese parents, Wang is often identified with films about the Chinese Diaspora, including the film adaptation of Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989), and The Joy Luck Club (1993), the iconic Chinese-American film that crossed over to a mainstream American audience. However, Wang has also made such independent features as Smoke and Blue in the Face (both 1995), two collaborations with novelist Paul Auster starring Harvey Keitel and William Hurt. In 2002, Wang made the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan, starring Ralph Fiennes and Jennifer Lopez, and also worked with Jeremy Irons in Chinese Box (1997), Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman in Anywhere But Here (1999), and Queen Latifah in Last Holiday (2006). In 2007, Wang returned to his Chinese roots with a double feature about two women from two different periods of New China, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Princess of Nebraska, and in 2011 directed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, based on the bestselling novel by Lisa See.

Three Great Things