Speaker 1: So should we get ready to start? Okay, take that
Speaker 1: in your question so you know, feel it. If it vibrates, yeah,
Speaker 1: turn it off. Turn it off. You're not gonna answer
Speaker 1: it anyway, so the way I turn it off. Hello. Hello, everyone,
Speaker 1: This is Martha Stewart, and today I am going to
Speaker 1: introduce you to two of the most attractive, most interesting,
Speaker 1: and most um unusual guys that I know. They are besties,
Speaker 1: as they say, which I hate. I hate the word
Speaker 1: besties so much and I don't like it when men
Speaker 1: introduced me to their besties. But these guys are best friends.
Speaker 1: These guys are colleagues. These guys have worked together for
Speaker 1: many years, and they've also worked with me for many years.
Speaker 1: And I have been seeing out and about with them
Speaker 1: at parties. Everybody always asks me, who are those two
Speaker 1: handsome men. Maybe they wanted to be a couple. I
Speaker 1: don't know. We're going to get into that. But they
Speaker 1: are good friends, best friends, and they are extremely interesting.
Speaker 1: Let me introduce you to Kevin Sharkey from Boston and
Speaker 1: Douglas Friedman from New York. Hi. Martha, Hi, it is
Speaker 1: so nice to sit down with you on this very
Speaker 1: busy day. You know, We're getting ready for our great
Speaker 1: American tag sale, and I am beleaguered and besieged and
Speaker 1: really not bedazzle. Really, I am a little big aisled.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you are here to interrupt the preparation
Speaker 1: for the tag sale and to maybe do a little
Speaker 1: shopping and a little advising. And this is what I
Speaker 1: rely on these guys for. I rely on these two
Speaker 1: men for advice. I rely on them for their artistic
Speaker 1: to ns, and I rely on them for their incredible
Speaker 1: professional behavior in their jobs. So, Kevin, let's start with you,
Speaker 1: because I think I've known you longer than I've known Douglas.
Speaker 1: How many years have we known each other? We have
Speaker 1: worked together for twenties seven years now twenty seven. Boy,
Speaker 1: it seems it sort of seems like yesterday that you
Speaker 1: were unpacking boxes and doing kinds of menial work at
Speaker 1: the magazine a Martha Stewart Living. But where were you before?
Speaker 1: Before I came to Martha, I was at Parish Hadley,
Speaker 1: which was an interior design firm in New York City.
Speaker 1: I was Albert Hadley's assistant, and then I came to you,
Speaker 1: and I've been there ever since. I have a very
Speaker 1: short resume very short and schooling. Tell me, I went
Speaker 1: to the Royland School Design. I studied architecture and it
Speaker 1: was a great place to go to school. And actually,
Speaker 1: when I joined Martha Stewart Living Magazine, you were the
Speaker 1: largest employer of Risdey graduates. I know. I was so
Speaker 1: proud of the factory member. We had an inventor at
Speaker 1: Martha Stewart Living for Rhode Island School of Design fundraiser
Speaker 1: and it was announced that I had more graduates working
Speaker 1: for me than any other company. Yeah, and you collected
Speaker 1: Risney grads, but you had them throughout your organization. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just art directors or just stylist. I wasn't hiring
Speaker 1: just art directors. I was hiring textile experts. I was
Speaker 1: hiring photographers. I was hiring people who worked with metal,
Speaker 1: furniture designers. What was your major? You were an architect architecture,
Speaker 1: an architecture major, and we placed them very carefully in
Speaker 1: our seven key core content areas. Remember and Douglas, when
Speaker 1: did we finally meet? We finally met, I mean it
Speaker 1: must have been about fifteen years ago. And I actually
Speaker 1: remember exactly when we met because I had become friends
Speaker 1: with Kevin, and then Kevin said, do you want to
Speaker 1: come to sushi tonight with Martha? And I was so nervous,
Speaker 1: and so I remember we were sitting there at sushi.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the restaurant which was which is the
Speaker 1: one with all the student the beautiful kind of the bamboo.
Speaker 1: It was so beautiful, and we had the loveliest, loveliest dinner.
Speaker 1: And I was like, why was I so nervous? Everyone
Speaker 1: getting me so nervous about it? Was so nice I've
Speaker 1: dinner with you that night. And I think that's when
Speaker 1: we became friends. And then we started to work together.
Speaker 1: We worked together a little bit. We did work together
Speaker 1: a little bit. We did a couple of photo shoots.
Speaker 1: One was a disaster, the first one. The first one,
Speaker 1: I thought I'd never worked with you guys again. But
Speaker 1: you see, we always give second chance. I got a
Speaker 1: second chance. We give third chances. I remember we were
Speaker 1: shooting Margaret Roach's house and I was such a young
Speaker 1: photographer and it was so new to the game, and
Speaker 1: I was so happy that, I mean, the most exciting opportunity.
Speaker 1: And my assistant had loaded We were shooting four assistant
Speaker 1: and he had loaded all the film backwards, so for
Speaker 1: two days and we had shot nothing that deserves firing
Speaker 1: on the spot. But it was also you were shooting
Speaker 1: the editor in chief at the time her house for
Speaker 1: our September US a decorating issue, and commerce story was
Speaker 1: like a big deal. Like the day of the shoot,
Speaker 1: I thought my career was about to change, and the
Speaker 1: day after this shoot, I thought my career had ended. Well.
Speaker 1: I must say you recovered extremely well. Douglas is now busy,
Speaker 1: and it could be busy, three hundred and sixty five
Speaker 1: days a year with photography jobs all over the world,
Speaker 1: all over the globe. He is traveling, he is peripatetic.
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody who travels more and does more
Speaker 1: in a week as a photographer than Douglas Freedman. I
Speaker 1: really don't. It's so many, so many. I just became
Speaker 1: an executive Platinum naming the magazines that you appear in
Speaker 1: all the time. I mean it's it's Architectural, Digest and
Speaker 1: El Decor and then the international editions. It's really the
Speaker 1: ones that love shooting for the most right, and they
Speaker 1: have so many photo shoots everywhere, and you have so
Speaker 1: many friends with extraordinary properties. Are you doing mostly interiors
Speaker 1: now and portraiture. I you, I would say interiors in architecture,
Speaker 1: and I'm starting to get back into portraits. There was
Speaker 1: a moment I wasn't so fond of taking them, but
Speaker 1: you take very nice portraits. Thank you. Yeah, I really
Speaker 1: love your portraits. And I remember when you were doing
Speaker 1: like Serena Williams, right, you were shooting her and you
Speaker 1: were so happy. I think you were nervous at that
Speaker 1: shoot too, but a little bit, but you were so
Speaker 1: happy with the outcome. Well, you know, ten years ago
Speaker 1: when we were I was doing a lot of work
Speaker 1: with Harper's Bazar, and you know, on a portrait shoot,
Speaker 1: you need a moment to kind of connect with your subject,
Speaker 1: so and at that. This was before Instagram, it was
Speaker 1: before TikTok, it was before all this content needed to
Speaker 1: be created, so you would have the day with your
Speaker 1: subject to get to know them and to take a
Speaker 1: great portrait. And then with the advent of social media,
Speaker 1: the moment of taking the portrait became almost the least
Speaker 1: important thing on a shoot because all the other content
Speaker 1: had to be true, right, every and they asked for
Speaker 1: so much content. Now each magazine you have to take
Speaker 1: so many things for so many different Instagram TikTok. As
Speaker 1: you said, you have to do it for online, you
Speaker 1: have to do it for a blog, and we have
Speaker 1: the same requirements now video you have to do video.
Speaker 1: Fifteen years ago, if I got to take your portrait,
Speaker 1: we'd have we'd have some time to take a portrait,
Speaker 1: and you know, connect a little bit. Now it's hard.
Speaker 1: It's kind of squeezing too much out of a day.
Speaker 1: I think so, well, what it is squeezing a lot
Speaker 1: out of the subjroject and it gets a little bit repetitive,
Speaker 1: and so I think maybe maybe maybe things will calm
Speaker 1: down a little bit. Unless there is a new social
Speaker 1: platform that is developed in the very near future that's
Speaker 1: going to change everything, maybe something will calm that will simplify.
Speaker 1: If they could simplify it, that would be better. Because
Speaker 1: you have competitive Instagram with TikTok, with just the internet itself,
Speaker 1: with Twitter. Well, maybe if there was a way of
Speaker 1: creating less content and making the content that was created
Speaker 1: more important, that's a very good point. Yes, I'm going
Speaker 1: to remind myself to post a little less. Well can
Speaker 1: you do that? Though? I mean that posting is isn't
Speaker 1: that how you get jobs. I mean, you're obviously establishing
Speaker 1: people know who you are, But isn't it important for
Speaker 1: your brand to be posting what? Absolutely, but maybe it's
Speaker 1: curated a little bit more. There's an idea that to curated,
Speaker 1: maybe edit it slightly. Do you do what you don't
Speaker 1: do all your posting? You post that I'd do my own.
Speaker 1: He does his own. You do not do enough. And
Speaker 1: I see the pitiful number of photographs that my very
Speaker 1: important employee posts, I am kind of disturbed. And we're
Speaker 1: going to get into that. Kevin, Okay, I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to that. We have we have some opportunities coming up
Speaker 1: in the future where we could do some posts. Kevin
Speaker 1: is now e v P Executive Design Director of the
Speaker 1: Martha Stewart brand at our new company, which is called Marquis.
Speaker 1: And not only is he the director, but he's also
Speaker 1: co authored a very beautiful book with me called Martha's Flowers,
Speaker 1: A Practical Guide to Growing, gathering and Enjoying. And Kevin
Speaker 1: and I worked very well on that book together and
Speaker 1: it is a beautiful book. If you haven't seen it, listeners,
Speaker 1: you should take a take a look at it. Kevin
Speaker 1: knows a lot about flowers. When did you get you
Speaker 1: love flowers so much? When I was younger, my parents
Speaker 1: like to entertain, and so there were always flowers around.
Speaker 1: I grew up with flowers in the house and gardens,
Speaker 1: and I worked for the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. I
Speaker 1: thought I wanted to be a landscape architects, and so
Speaker 1: i've just I've always been interested and fascinated by flowers.
Speaker 1: Why didn't you pursue landscape architecture? You would be very
Speaker 1: good at it, And you know, honestly, that's all I
Speaker 1: want is to have a garden. I don't really care
Speaker 1: about having a house, but I do really like the
Speaker 1: idea of having a garden. Douglas and I were talking
Speaker 1: today on the way up here in the car, and
Speaker 1: I said that I made a critical error in leaving interiors. Um,
Speaker 1: I like to say that I don't actually believe that,
Speaker 1: but interior designers just make so oh much money, I
Speaker 1: mean so much money, the good one. It's staggering. And
Speaker 1: i'd obviously be the best. I know that my taste
Speaker 1: is better than most people I know, so I know
Speaker 1: i'd be really good at it. But it's not too late. Nope,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not too late, too late. It's never
Speaker 1: too late to change and change. As I always say,
Speaker 1: it's good. Not that I want you to leave, because
Speaker 1: I'm not, but you could do some design jobs on
Speaker 1: the side. Kevin Douglas Friedman is now a very proud
Speaker 1: homeowner of two amazing properties that I know about. One
Speaker 1: is in Marfa, Texas. And if you don't know what Marfa,
Speaker 1: Texas is or where it is, Douglas, when did you
Speaker 1: tell us? God? Marfa, Texas is sits in the middle
Speaker 1: of the largest unpopulated land mass in the Arcas. So
Speaker 1: it's about three hours southeast of El Paso, Texas in
Speaker 1: the Big Bend region became sometimes call it occupied Northern Mexico.
Speaker 1: It sits there all by itself. It's a tiny little town. Actually,
Speaker 1: I think Martha you were there first. I think he
Speaker 1: won the arrival in Martha. I was there in six
Speaker 1: photographing Martha as an art installation in the desert. It
Speaker 1: was founded by Donald Judd, who used Martha as his home.
Speaker 1: I studied all his furniture and stuff. It's a little quirky,
Speaker 1: but the art is utterly extraordinary. And now so many
Speaker 1: other artists have wandered down to Marfa and have installations,
Speaker 1: big installations. How many other artists have installations there. I
Speaker 1: mean Donald Judd created the Chinnati Foundation with the DA Foundation,
Speaker 1: so it's one of the largest permanent art collections on
Speaker 1: the planet. So you have the permanent collection of Judd,
Speaker 1: m John Chamberlain, Dan Flavan has installations there, Ronnie Horne,
Speaker 1: Elia Kabakov and now there's you know, ELM Green and
Speaker 1: drag Set, this German art collective. They built the Protest
Speaker 1: Store on the side of the desert, which was a
Speaker 1: temporary art piece that is now permanent because it's become
Speaker 1: so popular now Oftentimes when you look up Marfa, that's
Speaker 1: the first thing that comes up is this little storefront
Speaker 1: sitting on the highway that says product and there's nothing
Speaker 1: in it, there's nothing to see, there's no you don't
Speaker 1: go inside, you just drive by it and it's just
Speaker 1: a really beautiful piece of living art right on the highway.
Speaker 1: A comment on consumerism. What brought you there in Marfa, Texas?
Speaker 1: The Donald Judd, He brought me there, John Folston, the architect,
Speaker 1: the English architect. He told me about Marfa. He got
Speaker 1: me very interested in the project there, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to photograph it for the magazine. We did the first
Speaker 1: big national magazine story on Marfa, wasn't it called Martha
Speaker 1: and Martha. Martha and Martha. I would love to see
Speaker 1: a copy of that. We stayed there for a while.
Speaker 1: A cowboy actually gave me a set of silver spurs
Speaker 1: and flew me around in his helicopter and we drank
Speaker 1: tequila of all sorts in that tequila bar that had
Speaker 1: about a hundred and fifty different kinds of tequila, and
Speaker 1: we ate the best food. They actually let me have
Speaker 1: a whole dinner in one of the museums there, in
Speaker 1: one of the buildings. It was an extraordinary experience. And
Speaker 1: that's the kind of stuff that Martha Stewart Living did
Speaker 1: in those days. Very avant garde and also informative and
Speaker 1: very inspiring to other people. I think it's sent a
Speaker 1: lot of people to Martha as a tourist attraction. But
Speaker 1: you have built an extraordinary life there in Martha. You
Speaker 1: built a house. Tell us about your house. You know.
Speaker 1: I went to Martha about ten years ago and and
Speaker 1: found like the end of the road. Like you traveled
Speaker 1: twelve hours from New York city to get to Martha.
Speaker 1: It is such an extraordinary journey. And then you got
Speaker 1: into town, and then you go through town, and then
Speaker 1: you get on a dirt road and you drive three
Speaker 1: miles down a dirt road, which is a long, long way,
Speaker 1: and it's exhausting, and it's beautiful. And you passed double
Speaker 1: wide trailers and you pass cars on blocks, and you
Speaker 1: pass the derelict goat farm and then the dirt road
Speaker 1: ends and there was this perfect piece of land surrounded
Speaker 1: by mountains, endless, endless kind of grasslands. And I bought
Speaker 1: it and I was inspired by it. And he has
Speaker 1: inspired many other people to travel to Marfa and also
Speaker 1: by property in Martha. It's really inspiring to see what
Speaker 1: you've done there. Thank you. So here we are looking
Speaker 1: at the article Martha in Martha with the Martha expert
Speaker 1: Douglas Friedman. What do you think Those are the rails
Speaker 1: that were built by Donald Judge, aren't they? And and
Speaker 1: look look at these look at these pictures that's in
Speaker 1: the old Martha National Bank building. Isn't it great? Oh
Speaker 1: my god? Some incredible food and the food was amazing,
Speaker 1: all these salads. This is a carrot slaw. There's the
Speaker 1: preparation you had. Lou Lambert, I did. Lou Lambert was
Speaker 1: there grilling for you. Look at that from my house
Speaker 1: from the plane. Yes, I owned a shoebox like that.
Speaker 1: I remember. I owned the bun Shaft House Georgica Pond
Speaker 1: in East Hampton. And when you built your house, all
Speaker 1: I could think of was, Wow, this is like the
Speaker 1: modern bun shaft. This is It's a much more lively
Speaker 1: and much more livable than the bun Shaft House on Georgica.
Speaker 1: But do you ever live in the bun Shaft House.
Speaker 1: I did spend a night there, but I didn't I
Speaker 1: never lived there, and I love that. I loved that house.
Speaker 1: I sold it for silly reasons, but sold it, and
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I did because it was quite an extraordinary place.
Speaker 1: We did a paint story there. We did a cover
Speaker 1: shoot their of you holding a big picture was a
Speaker 1: February issue when it was a paint story on painting
Speaker 1: with pink. What Kevin does is an extraordinary amount of
Speaker 1: work for the Martha brand, developing millions of well, I
Speaker 1: can't say millions, thousands of products, Oh, I think absolutely
Speaker 1: for sure. And walking through the tents today, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at products that we designed over the years and it
Speaker 1: just brings it's like a flood of memories, a crazy
Speaker 1: flood of memories. But the work of the brand is extraordinary.
Speaker 1: And when he says, look walking through all this furniture
Speaker 1: and stuff, it is, um, this is what's at the
Speaker 1: American Tag sail And it's really kind of fun to
Speaker 1: unpack a box and see that, Oh, we made this,
Speaker 1: and then we made that. And Kevin's worked on everything
Speaker 1: from the Keymart collections to the Macy's collections, to the J. C.
Speaker 1: Penny collections, to the Depot collections to the Martha Dot
Speaker 1: FM home Decorators QVC. We go on and on and on,
Speaker 1: and Kevin has been intimately involved with each and every
Speaker 1: aspect of all that product development and also not only
Speaker 1: the product development, but the packaging, the creative design of
Speaker 1: the packaging too, and the colors. Oh find case of
Speaker 1: Europe and Truman Williams. What part of your job, Kevin,
Speaker 1: do you like the best? What I really loved? I
Speaker 1: like making content. I loved working on the Flower book.
Speaker 1: I loved making those arrangements. I love you and I
Speaker 1: going on these shopping tours where we find things and
Speaker 1: bring it back and we, you know, perfect it, and
Speaker 1: then we make it so our customer can buy it.
Speaker 1: I like creating. I hate saying this word. I hate creating.
Speaker 1: I like creating content. I like finding things that we
Speaker 1: can make and sell. I like making beautiful pictures. I
Speaker 1: like creating stories that will inspire people. That's the part
Speaker 1: of my job that I really love. Now. That part
Speaker 1: of my job I wouldn't say is necessarily the majority
Speaker 1: of my job now because I work with so many teams.
Speaker 1: So I always tell people that I feel like my
Speaker 1: primary responsibility is making an environment where the designers can create,
Speaker 1: because that's what I witnessed when I started working for you.
Speaker 1: What I always tell people as Martha's one of her
Speaker 1: biggest accomplishments was creating an environ And were so many people,
Speaker 1: all these people that you referenced earlier, photographers and metalmakers
Speaker 1: and rammacists and textile designers and all these people putting
Speaker 1: together a world where they could create a brand that
Speaker 1: has changed America. Like to be a part of that
Speaker 1: is extraordinary. So I take that opportunity really really seriously.
Speaker 1: That's that's really what I like. And Douglas, when did
Speaker 1: you get into photography. Wow, photography. I kind of fell
Speaker 1: into it because I didn't quite know what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do. Where did you go to school? I went
Speaker 1: to school in California, Occidental College, and I studied. I
Speaker 1: graduated with a major anthropology in a minor in film,
Speaker 1: and I was going to be a documentary filmmaker. And
Speaker 1: they very quickly got sidetracked when I got a job
Speaker 1: working with the director called David Fincher on a movie seven,
Speaker 1: which was I mean worked on that movie. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that I worked in the movie Seven. That's one
Speaker 1: of the scariest movies I have ever seen, so brilliantly directed,
Speaker 1: because there's nothing really that graphick to look at. Worked
Speaker 1: with David Fincher on stuff, Really, what did you do well?
Speaker 1: I don't remember our direction and so scary, I mean
Speaker 1: every single one was such a brilliant manta Fincher constantly
Speaker 1: directing and pretty not even more interesting things. So I
Speaker 1: was with David for three years on seven, Fight Club,
Speaker 1: in the Game, and realized that I wasn't gonna make
Speaker 1: like I was never going to be as good as
Speaker 1: a director as David Fincher was, So I try, So
Speaker 1: I traveled, I sold everything I owned and I bought
Speaker 1: it one way ticket to India, and I spent a
Speaker 1: year backpacking around India with ten thousand dollars in my pocket,
Speaker 1: and I spend it all. I got a little sick
Speaker 1: at about month ten, came back to America. I couldn't
Speaker 1: quite figure out what to do. So I went back
Speaker 1: to India for six more months and backpacked, and I
Speaker 1: climbed to him A layers swice and maybe a woman
Speaker 1: played your part. I think that was right. But I
Speaker 1: went a little further afield. And when I but the
Speaker 1: whole time I was traveling and I was taking photographs,
Speaker 1: and I think that was my hobby. And when I
Speaker 1: came back to New York after this second and I
Speaker 1: needed a job, and a friend of mine was like,
Speaker 1: Gill ben Simone needs a photo assistant. So I thought
Speaker 1: I could do that. So I went to be Jill's assistant.
Speaker 1: And then I got another job assisting another photographer. And
Speaker 1: for four years I was assisting, and I kind of
Speaker 1: gave myself that amount of time, and I assisted interior
Speaker 1: photographers and fashion photographers and portrait photographers and still life
Speaker 1: photographers and all types of photographers. And what I really
Speaker 1: responded to was was the interiors and the architecture. I
Speaker 1: kind of that's where I developed my love for it.
Speaker 1: And it was a struggle because because they don't talk
Speaker 1: back to you, chairs don't talk back. I could spend
Speaker 1: hours with a chair in the room. And but you know,
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, all the editors wanted me. That everybody wanted
Speaker 1: me to be a fashion photographer. I think because I
Speaker 1: had tattoos. And I know why, because he's really attractive.
Speaker 1: Don't tell him that raised severy curly hairstachio. He wears
Speaker 1: gold bracelets, and he has muscles, and he works out.
Speaker 1: Are you talking about serves? And he has broad shoulders,
Speaker 1: and he wears all black and white sneakers. What are
Speaker 1: those sneakers? Meda's, Dan Smith's. And the crazy thing is
Speaker 1: everybody seems to like him. I don't know anybody who
Speaker 1: doesn't like Douglas Freedman. You should talk to some of
Speaker 1: my exploit friends. Well, I'm not talking to them. I'm
Speaker 1: not talking to the boyfriends. I'm talking to everybody else.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to beat with Douglas Freedman. I go to
Speaker 1: Tennessee because Doug is gonna come. I go to Texas.
Speaker 1: This Doug is coming. It's like crazy, but picture for me,
Speaker 1: I'm always like, people are like are they coming? Are
Speaker 1: they coming with you? It's Martin Douglas here. It's like
Speaker 1: we don't all travel together all that, but we are
Speaker 1: going to travel and Kevin and Martha are going to
Speaker 1: go to Italy. Yes, we have quite a trip planned.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. I really need a vacation. Have you
Speaker 1: been to Lake Como? No, that's one you've never been.
Speaker 1: Like Como is never going to be the same after Well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to call Mr Clooney and see if we
Speaker 1: can see his beautiful lot for us. I'm not hoping
Speaker 1: for any bothers some stuff. I just want to see. Okay,
Speaker 1: good Kevin Chew. Now here's here's Kevin. Kevin has two
Speaker 1: lives that I know about. Kevin has his work life
Speaker 1: with me, and he's and my family. Actually, Kevin is
Speaker 1: like uncle TiO. He's called Teo Kevin by my two
Speaker 1: lovely grandchildren, and they live in the same building. They
Speaker 1: see each other all all the time. But then he
Speaker 1: has this other life, which I call, you know, the
Speaker 1: secret life. And he says, I know all these people,
Speaker 1: but I don't know any of them, and like, I
Speaker 1: call up, you want to have dinner? No, I have Monica,
Speaker 1: You have dinner. No, I have Tracy. On Dotatata goes
Speaker 1: on and on and on and on. He must have
Speaker 1: how many godchildren do you have? Seven? He has seven
Speaker 1: god children and he knows all their names, and he
Speaker 1: knows all their birthdays. I mean, I think I have
Speaker 1: fourteen godchildren, and I have a lot more than but
Speaker 1: I don't even know you know who they are. Everybody
Speaker 1: wants me godchildren. I will remember you when I die.
Speaker 1: You're a real great quality, Kevin, is that you make
Speaker 1: time for your friends. I try, and that's a really
Speaker 1: really good quality, even if it annoys me because I
Speaker 1: want you to do something else. You make time for
Speaker 1: your other friends. Do you remember that time, Kevin where
Speaker 1: you took like a week? Kevin is so busy, one
Speaker 1: of the busy, almost as busy as Martha. But you
Speaker 1: took an entire week out of your schedule and you
Speaker 1: drove across country with me truck. I drove it across
Speaker 1: the country. You can see in the middle of the seat, Yes,
Speaker 1: we had a bench seat. We were with our friend
Speaker 1: Lucas Wilson, and they stopped in every junk food restaurants,
Speaker 1: fell in love with waffle House. I had never been
Speaker 1: to such a place. Or Dollywood. Yeah, you brought me
Speaker 1: to all these. There was this one story about it.
Speaker 1: So we were on this trip and we were driving
Speaker 1: across country and I was paying for it. So we
Speaker 1: would like every night, we would stop and we would
Speaker 1: get a motel room. That's why he stayed in a
Speaker 1: motel one room or one room. We'd have two giants
Speaker 1: like queen beds and Kevin, Like I would walk in
Speaker 1: with my knapsack with my toothbrush and a change of shorts,
Speaker 1: and Kevin would come in with the anthony. He would
Speaker 1: drag these two enormous purple t anthony bags and he
Speaker 1: would get into the room and he would take out
Speaker 1: a plastic tarp and he would cover the entire bed
Speaker 1: in the plastic tark and put out his his fabulous
Speaker 1: she's the shamrocks? Did he have the shamrock? And he
Speaker 1: had like four sets of these sheets, And so he
Speaker 1: would make the bed and then the next day he
Speaker 1: would wrap the whole thing up in the plastic and
Speaker 1: put it in his seat case. And then there was
Speaker 1: another one for the next time when we go on
Speaker 1: an airplane, he brings out the little pillow with the
Speaker 1: little port toe embroidered little pillow slip on it with
Speaker 1: a little borders of blue or green. He took an
Speaker 1: afternoon nap in that truck every afternoon. The little pillow
Speaker 1: he did. He said, you know where he was and
Speaker 1: where he was going? Did he read the map? At
Speaker 1: least he couldn't do that. He can't drive. He was
Speaker 1: great time. He doesn't drive. Kevin Sharkey does not have
Speaker 1: a driver's license. Everyone just remember that. And you know
Speaker 1: how debilitating that is. I mean, we have much smart one.
Speaker 1: When I needed him to drive, we forced him to
Speaker 1: drive up Cadillac Mountain in a Jaguar. You forced me.
Speaker 1: It was more harrowing than driving up. It was driving down. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm forced him to drive down Cadillac Mountain. Let me
Speaker 1: just set this store. Are you straight? So we go Martha,
Speaker 1: her daughter Alexis, and I go hiking in the morning,
Speaker 1: and Martha drives her ed Soul, her prized ed Soul car,
Speaker 1: and then somehow there's a Jaguar there when we're leaving,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, why are we Why are there two cars?
Speaker 1: I didn't quite understand it. Somehow they had conspired to
Speaker 1: have another car there, and Alexis and I drove a
Speaker 1: Jaguar back and Martha was in front of us with
Speaker 1: her car. And Martha is probably the best parker of
Speaker 1: anyone I have ever met, but Martha is easily distracted.
Speaker 1: So when she's driving, she tends to stop without warning
Speaker 1: because I'm looking at the looking at a deer eagle
Speaker 1: or some moss or a beautiful rock or something like that.
Speaker 1: And so you're driving down this mountain and she's in
Speaker 1: front with her car, and then I'm white knuckled in
Speaker 1: the back and Alexis is next to me, and I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for the moment you're driving. It's like a little
Speaker 1: it's the dagger is so easy to drive. I don't
Speaker 1: know how to drive. It's not easy when you don't
Speaker 1: know how. So anyway, it wasn't as simple as just
Speaker 1: coming down the mountain, and I was I was sure
Speaker 1: that I was going to like plowing to you in
Speaker 1: the front and screw up the paint job of the car.
Speaker 1: And it was just I'm glad that's over. So yes,
Speaker 1: I don't drive, but I don't really miss it. I
Speaker 1: will tell you that. So because you've traveled so much,
Speaker 1: both of you, where have you been that you want
Speaker 1: to return to? And where haven't you been that you
Speaker 1: must go to? Um, that's so easy for me. I've
Speaker 1: never been to Japan. I've never been to Japan, of course, yes,
Speaker 1: okay with us, Yeah, that would be a great trip.
Speaker 1: I love to see because I have a lot of
Speaker 1: friends in Japan, and I know I've been from the
Speaker 1: north to the south to the islands. When was the
Speaker 1: last time you guys were in Japan before the pandemic.
Speaker 1: But it's such a beautiful country and so much to see.
Speaker 1: You have to go to Yokoshima, where the oldest trees
Speaker 1: in the world live, and you have to to Naga,
Speaker 1: know where they had the Olympics. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: most important, the best, the Japanese food, the best and
Speaker 1: the healthy, healthy, healthy food. And what about you, keV.
Speaker 1: I really want to go to India. That's really really
Speaker 1: where I want to go. I haven't been. I was
Speaker 1: there for two days a long time ago. But I
Speaker 1: was supposed to travel all through I was traveling all
Speaker 1: through Asia, and I was supposed to spend a month
Speaker 1: in India, but I was too thin, and I was
Speaker 1: I was just by that time, I had lost way
Speaker 1: too much weight and I was not going to be
Speaker 1: able to like survive India, so I had to come back.
Speaker 1: Where do you want to go? Well, I haven't been,
Speaker 1: because you've been everywhere. I have not. No, I haven't
Speaker 1: been through. I have not been to New Zealand, even
Speaker 1: though never even though I went. There were a couple
Speaker 1: of summers, you know. I know I went to and
Speaker 1: which was beautiful. I've went all over Australia, but I
Speaker 1: haven't been to New Zealand. And I'm very very anxious
Speaker 1: to go to places like Outer Mongolia interesting really and
Speaker 1: I haven't been to Petra. Oh. I want to go back.
Speaker 1: We just talked about that the day that I have
Speaker 1: to see. And I used to want to take the
Speaker 1: Trans Siberian Railroad. Not ever again. I'm never going to
Speaker 1: do that and I don't think we'll ever ever be
Speaker 1: able to do that again. But I think there's a
Speaker 1: Trans Mongolian. Yes, that would be very beautiful. But what's
Speaker 1: the favorite place you've been? Maybe it sounds so cliche,
Speaker 1: but I've been thinking so much about Paris. It's been
Speaker 1: such a long time since they've been to Paris. I
Speaker 1: think it's been about four years. Time to go, and
Speaker 1: I think it's time to go back to Paris. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so many places I love visiting, but for some reason,
Speaker 1: it's I mean, that town has its grip on me.
Speaker 1: We've had fun times in Paris. Remember the time Originals
Speaker 1: Original so much fun before Cherry just took over. Right,
Speaker 1: it was a little threadbare and you know, the rugs
Speaker 1: had holes, of the towels had you know, it was
Speaker 1: a bit Wes Anderson the first timember that time. The
Speaker 1: three of us were staying there for the fashion week.
Speaker 1: It's definitely it's very glamorous now, very glitzy. My grandchildren
Speaker 1: experienced the new Rits and they had the best time.
Speaker 1: They spent most of their time down in the pool,
Speaker 1: having beautiful having afternoon tea in the little bathrooms. We
Speaker 1: were there together recently, four years ago. Remember we sat,
Speaker 1: We drank so many martinis up so there's little hamburgers.
Speaker 1: I just came back from Paris. It was it was great.
Speaker 1: The pandemic took its toll over there for sure, but
Speaker 1: they're they're cleaning everything. Either of you seen the fallen
Speaker 1: true JOm, did you go by you did? What does
Speaker 1: it look like? Is it scaffold? It's being rebuilt. So
Speaker 1: the strange thing is when you go by you you
Speaker 1: notice there's light that's not supposed to be there because
Speaker 1: there's no edifice to block it. It's being redone, so
Speaker 1: it doesn't look shattered the way you would imagine it
Speaker 1: would look. That was one of the most tragic things
Speaker 1: that happened in France. But there they are cleaning that
Speaker 1: everything is being regilded and washed and power washed and everything. Well,
Speaker 1: we have the Memorial Day weekends in Maine, one of
Speaker 1: the few traditions that I that I have in my life.
Speaker 1: I go to you like tradition though, I do like it,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to have it with the schedule I have.
Speaker 1: But you know, I have an annual family holiday that's
Speaker 1: been forty nine years, and I have mystique. Yea, So
Speaker 1: tell us about mystique because you and your family when
Speaker 1: you get there too. It's such a wacky little island.
Speaker 1: It's so much fun. It's not what everyone thinks it is.
Speaker 1: But what do you think it is? I think people
Speaker 1: think it's you know, Princess Margaret and very kind of
Speaker 1: pretentious and British, and it's well, it's very British, but
Speaker 1: it's not pretentious. I don't think anyone wears shoes. And
Speaker 1: there's no like there's there's nothing to do, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of sit on the beach and talk to people.
Speaker 1: It's nice. We have so much to talk about and
Speaker 1: so many things to do together. Still, there are so
Speaker 1: many campaigns that you can be shooting. There are so
Speaker 1: many portraits that I want taken. Martha's still building houses,
Speaker 1: so there's more rooms. And both these guys are two
Speaker 1: of the most charming men I have ever met, two
Speaker 1: of the most intelligent and creative and artistic men that
Speaker 1: I have ever met. And I really feel really lucky
Speaker 1: to have you both as my friends. And we're going
Speaker 1: to continue with this podcast interviewing other of my friends
Speaker 1: because these are That's why I want to talk to
Speaker 1: I want to talk to interesting people and hear funny
Speaker 1: stories and reminiscences and hopes and dreams. So good luck
Speaker 1: with your new house, having good luck with designing gardens,
Speaker 1: good luck with possibly doing more landscape designs. Four acres
Speaker 1: up the road here ready for Kevin's artistic touch. So
Speaker 1: thank you very much for sitting down with me, and
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this. Thank you. I did. I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed this morning. Ward though Banks m