a (re)introduction to clipboard

Welcome to clipboard, a weekly newsletter about clothes, hospitality and Tāmaki Makaurau by Reilly Hodson. This week: a reintroduction to clipboard as I start the new year in earnest, and now I’ve changed the fonts (thanks, Substack!).

We’re a week and a half into 2021, and it has felt like a lifetime already. Guys with bad tattoos and worse hoodies tried to take over the US government, Jeffree Starr was rumoured to be having an affair with Kanye West, who’s getting a divorce, the Blackcaps are the #1 team in test cricket. If the first few days are any indication, the 20s will be a pretty intense decade.

I’ve spent this part of the year, where I don’t have to go to my real job and no one is in the office doing theirs, either, thinking about the direction I want to take myself going forward, and what comes next. I covered a bit of that last week, which you can go back and read if you missed it (one thing I’m proud of, resolutions-wise, is that I’ve been for a run every day since that newsletter came out, a pace I have no intention of maintaining but which has been good for habit setting).

This week, in that vein, I thought it would be good to take a step back and reintroduce myself, and this newsletter. Clipboard has experienced some significant growth at the start of this year (thanks to all my new subscribers for humouring my mum’s insistence that you should sign up), and there are now a significant number of people following this newsletter that I do not know, which is pretty cool. So that’s what this week’s issue will be, a reintroduction to myself and what this weekly thing is all about.

what is clipboard, anyway?

My name is Reilly Hodson, and I’m a freelance writer, very-part-time barista, and soon to be graduate in Law and Communications. I’m obsessed with being too online, eating out and wearing nice clothes, all at levels which are probably financially imprudent. I’m also in a constant process of falling in love with Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, the city I moved to in the middle of my childhood and which has become a properly world-class place to live, so long as you don’t rely too heavily on public transport and can afford the rent/house prices.

This newsletter was born out of a desire to force myself to write something every week, and to give a platform, however small, to the cool things that I love. Over 6 or so months it’s grown into something that is a key part of my life every week, and forms a part of literally tens of people’s Sunday morning routine. The newsletter basically has two main sections: a short essay/piece or two about something to do with clothes, hospitality or Auckland (I’m hoping to ramp up the hospo coverage this year when I have a little more disposable income for eating and drinking out, stay tuned!); and clips, which is a collection of cool stuff from the internet and real life, explained in one or two sentences with links. Even if you aren’t interested in the main piece, you should always check the clips, as I try to get in events, drops and recommendations, something for everyone.

Occasionally I break character from being a positive, consumerist guy, like when I wrote about how I voted in the last election, but I’m mostly an advocate for responsible and informed consumption. I believe that the fashion industry is contributing to the destruction of the planet, but I also know that a new pair of pants can make a huge difference in how I feel. Likewise, I love going out to eat, while acknowledging that the hospitality industry overworks and underpays its staff (including me). It’s a balancing act to live in the world in 2021, and clipboard is an attempt to acknowledge and investigate that while promoting Good Stuff, and there’ll be more of that nuance this year, too.

Basically, clipboard is hopefully a great accompaniment to your Sunday morning beverage of choice, breaking down stuff you missed, giving you some food for thought, and advocating for good things that come from the local area. I hope you’ll stick around every week, and if you like clipboard, send it to your coolest friends and let’s grow the community. There’s also an Instagram account where I post stories of cool stuff going on, and what I’m doing, along with the occasional fit pic. Hopefully, this year is going to be a year of thoughtful and useful content in clipboard, with more visuals and maybe even some interviews? Dunno, if you have anything you want to see here every Sunday, I always reply to emails and Instagram DMs, or chats over a coffee or other beverage, and I would love to include as much reader input as I possibly can.

clips

• Day one clipboard homie Isaac Evans is doing a raffle of Checks Downtown garms to support the Cancer Society Manawatu. Limited tickets available, at the feel-good price of $10. They drop at 8pm on Monday, hit him on the gram for more details.

• I just started listening to the podcast By the Book, where two women read a different self help book every episode and follow it to the letter for two weeks, then review. It’s a good gimmick, delightfully executed, and great escapism for the hellfire going on in the world.

• Almost every good cafe and restaurant will be open again this coming week, but if you need something today, clipboard faves Williams Eatery, Daily Daily and Ockhee are all open for Sunday service.

• We watched Soul on Disney+ the other night and it is so good, though I think Pixar needs to lean further into the fact that some of its films are really just existential works for adults, and stop pretending that these movies are for kids.

• My partner’s new boss had the best explanation for his version of smart casual: yes to sneakers, yes to jeans, no to sneakers and jeans at the same time. Words to live by, if you have a smart-casual type job.

• If you’re looking for a good new summer house beverage, I recommend getting a bottle of L’Opera, a Hawkes Bay bitter orange aperitif, and keeping some prosecco or sparkling wine on hand for a L’Opera spritz, delish.

GQ’s 10 things Reilly Hodson can’t live about

To reintroduce myself to those of you that don’t know me very well, I thought I’d do a favourites style piece to close out this week’s newsletter. Here are 10 things I can’t live without.

coffee: I’m not one of those “don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee” type people, but I do love a good brew. I drink long blacks, espresso coldos (if you know, you know), and filter coffee, and my favourite place to do this is Daily Daily, the best coffeemakers in the city, bar none.

food: I only really got into eating delicious food after I started working in hospitality, and after I met my partner (more on her later), so 6ish years ago. Since then I’ve spent way too much of my disposable income on eating out, and it’s been worth it. I love great food, sure, but I also love the experience of dining at an excellent restaurant and getting great service. My favourite place to eat in Auckland at the moment is Ockhee, a Korean restaurant on Ponsonby Road which has great food, delicious drinks and amazing service. I’m also a keen home cook who loves following recipes, particularly ones by problematic Alison Roman, Hetty McKinnon and the NYT Cooking App.

natural wine: It’s cliche, I know, but most of the first wine I ever drank was natural wine, and I’m hooked. At its best, natural wine is more drinkable, less fussy and just as interesting as “conventional” wine, though at its worst it can taste something like off kombucha. It’s a growing part of the market, and one which is poorly defined, but if you’re yet to get into it, I highly recommend heading into Clay, Everyday Wine or Star Superette and talking to their natty nerds and trying a bottle or two. We drank a bottle of this at New Year’s, and both I and my not-super-into-wine companions loved it.

pants: Pants are maybe my favourite and most frustrating items to shop for. A good pair of pants will make or break your outfit (every man’s wardrobe would be elevated by at least 30% if all their pants fit properly), but they can be really difficult to find. If you want just a good pair of pants, my favourites are a classic pair of Dickies 874s, altered if you want to be fancy about it, or Stan Ray painter pants which are a little wider and more casual. That’s the bulk of my pants collection, but I’ve also got some good recommendations for more freaky options (hit me up if you’d like them).

shoes: If I’m not on the search for a pair of Good Pants, I’m always thinking about buying new shoes. I’m not a big sneaker head; I mostly go for classic silhouettes in black or white, that’ll go with everything and hopefully last for ages, and I’m always looking to grow my collection. My summer rotation is New Balance 990s (mine are in need of replacing, if anyone has the plug on a pair in US 9 hit me up), Birkenstock Arizona EVAs, Doc Marten 1461 Monos and Blundstones.

stuff that smells good: I’ve recently become hooked on making everything around me smell really good. My partner and I got each other a bunch of incense for Christmas (my favourites are Kuumba, which you can get at Shakes on Vulcan Lane, and Shiseido, which you can get at Everyday Needs). We also always have a candle on the go (our house favourite is the Burnt Sage from Crushes), and my new signature scent is Tacit from Aesop (thanks mum and dad).

my partner: My partner Liv is really the reason any of this happens. She’s a brilliant art gallery assistant and has taught me how to enjoy good art, and she’s one of the coolest and smartest people I know. She’s also very good at encouraging my silly ideas, like this newsletter, of which she was the first sign up, and making me believe in myself, not always an easy feat.

my favourite accessories: I’m mostly a minimalist when it comes to accessory usage. I have a beautiful vintage Omega watch that I got for my 21st which I wear only on special occasions because the leather strap can mess with my eczema, I have a ring I got from my godmother that I wear every day, and I have two chains from my friend Albertine’s jewellery label Pigment Studio, that I wear almost constantly, too. I’m a silver jewellery person, and have very little intention of expanding this collection too much because too much choice when getting dressed can stress me out.

books: I was a big reader as a young person, and it sort of fell off a little bit while I was studying at university. In the last year or so I’ve really recommitted to reading every night before bed, and as often as I can during the day, too. I also honestly just get great satisfaction from buying new books, so I force myself to read them, too. Let me know if you’d like more book recommendations in this newsletter. I’m currently reading Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, and I just finished Dune, in time for the movie’s release sometime next year.

email newsletters: The main reason I started this email newsletter was because of how much I love reading other people’s ones. I love the way that the medium allows for more personality and voice, and a real insight into the author’s mind. My favourite email newsletter’s are the Mach 3 jawnz intel of Blackbird Spyplane, the fastidious coverage of local news in The Spinoff’s The Bulletin (everyone should start their day with The Bulletin, imo), the good links of Deez Links and Today in Tabs (a must for media nerds) and Jean Teng’s insightful hospo coverage in Metro Eats. I don’t currently pay for any newsletters, but I expect that to change this year (if you want to pay money for clipboard, get in touch!).

notices

• I’m going to revive the notices section this year, if you want to promote anything or are hiring, or whatever, hit me up!

• The good folks at Madame George are hiring part time front of house and bar staff, go work for the nicest man in hospitality, Pablo Arrasco Paz!

• I made myself a fancy website with a CV and some of my professional work. If you or anyone you know is hiring/commissioning in the media or communications industries and are interested in someone with Law school education and hospitality work ethic, have a look and get in touch! 

That’s all for clipboard this week! I’ll be back in your inbox this time next Sunday. In the meantime, follow the clipboard Instagram for to-the-minute recs in your stories feed, and get in touch over DM or email if you have tips, recommendations or just want to have a yarn. If you like clipboard and want it to keep getting bigger and better, send it to your coolest friends!