What to Read: Blackbird Spyplane is reconnoitering fresh styles
This week, we interviewed Jonah Weiner, who, along with Erin Wylie, writes Blackbird Spyplane, a publication about the covetable and cool possessions we cherish.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What’s your Substack about in one sentence?
It’s a celebration of cool, under-the-radar, ingenious things, the people who make them, and the people who love them, written by a culture journalist (Jonah) and design scout (Erin)—we identify weird trends; write delightful and profound essays about creativity, ethics, and consumerism; and interview people we admire about unique possessions near and dear to their hearts.
You’ve featured some massive cultural figures in the newsletter—Seinfeld, Lorde, André 3000. How do you forge collaborations with such big names?
All three of those people get a kick out of the newsletter, so they were, awesomely, down to chat with us about rare possessions they cherish. Some other favorite interviews we’ve done are with Danielle Haim, Rashida Jones, Nathan Fielder, Phoebe Bridgers, Mike Mills, Daniel Arnold, Michael Stipe, Emily Bode, Thomas Mars from Phoenix, Elijah and Alix from Online Ceramics, and Seth Rogen.
Sometimes we approach people cold via mutual friends; sometimes we already know them and text them directly to invite them; sometimes people in their camps or social circles tell them about the newsletter, and they get in touch with us.
What’s behind the name Blackbird Spyplane?
It was my (Jonah’s) favorite plane as a kid. Seen in one light, it’s a beautiful, rare piece of “modern vintage” design that cost preposterous amounts of money to develop and never really demonstrated its utility (even though I think it’s the fastest aircraft on record). Beautiful, rare things without utility are appealing to us, and as far as what spirit it conveys to readers, hopefully it’s a spirit of fun and not taking ourselves too seriously.
A reader described your publication as “a distillation of how [many] of us talk about fashion and ‘pop culture’ behind closed doors: a little loopy, a little ironic, way nerdy, but restless about what the point of all this shit is.” Are you restless about what the point of all this is?
There’s a definite restlessness built into consumer culture itself—this undead-zombie-brain urge to endlessly acquire clothing, etc., that’s driven into us by marketers and people selling shit—so we grapple with that in the newsletter, along with things like the environmental impact and the exploitation of working people who actually fabricate garments. But we hold concerns like those alongside our belief that ingenious, beautiful clothes and other well-made things make life richer and more joyful, too.
Your visual design elements are as distinct as your voice. What tips do you have for other writers looking to develop their publication’s visuals?
Don’t let a lack of Photoshop “talent” stand in your way.
You’ve experimented with creating subscriber souvenirs that have been big hits with readers. What does the future look like for BBSP merch?
It’s not something we want to do very much, and we definitely don’t want to make merch for merch’s sake, but when a really special idea occurs to us, it’s fun to give the people in Spy Nation a little physical artifact of this non-physical newsletter.
Read: “The New SpySlappers are HERE.”
Who’s another Substack writer you’d recommend?
People should check out our friends at Dirt, who send out quick, smart, thoughtful dispatches about various cultural creations, events, and phenomena five times a week.
Subscribe to Jonah and Erin’s publication, Blackbird Spyplane, and find them on Twitter and Instagram.
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