​Karjaka and I are old friends. I met him first semester in the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music in 2010, where he studied bass clarinet with Michael Lowenstern; he quickly dropped out to pursue photography full time. I've done creative shoots for him where I was dressed as a sad clown (reminiscent of a '20s Pierrot) and bound with rope as a dominatrix's sub (we listened to James Brown the whole time). I trust him utterly and completely in matters of business, music, and the heart.

We welcome Aleks to our advisory board!

Pictured: above, "The Latte" and below, composer Aaron Helgeson, from Karjaka's Stories series.

Argentine critic Laura Novoa - not to be confused with the TV personality of the same name - is a renowned writer on music and culture for Buenos Aires's major newspaper La Nación. I met her at Americas Society when she helped to curate a concert of compositions from the Instituto Di Tella - the center of experimental electroacoustic music in Buenos Aires - which was founded by Alberto Ginastera in 1962.

I was taken by a compelling talk she gave at Rutgers University and thought that she would be a unique voice on the Cargo Culture advisory board.

I met Danny through Whitney George's Curiosity Cabinet a few years ago at a Prospect Heights bar. It was dark, daytime, we all had a beer and talked shop. He is compassionate and endlessly curious in his artistic practice. His compositions are both haunting and sweet, with a nod to simpler times when perhaps melody wasn't such a bad thing.

Here's a video of two of my favorites, soprano Laura Strickling and cellist Ben Larsen, performing "Full of Life" at Concerts on the Slope, Brooklyn.

My first US premiere production with Miguel (curator, Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires) was Pablo Ortiz's Gallos y huesos (Roosters and Bones) with video projections by acclaimed Argentine visual artist Eduardo Stupía. The house was packed, the singers sparkled, and the Argentine musicians -  conducted by Americas Society's Music Director Sebastián Zubieta - were stellar. The images were, in a word, disturbing. Ortiz's tango-like melodies contrasted sharply with Stupía's violent imagery.

Pola Oloixarac was born in Buenos Aires in 1977. Her debut novel Savage Theories was a breakout bestseller in Argentina, and in 2010 Granta recognized her as one of the best young contemporary novelists in Spanish. Oloixarac is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Telegraph, and Rolling Stone, and her fiction has appeared in Granta, n+1, The White Review, and in an issue of Freeman’s dedicated to "The Future of New Writing." She has received scholarships from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes (Argentina), the International Writers Program in Iowa, and other institutions. She currently lives in Barcelona.

From the critically acclaimed author of Savage Theories and Dark Constellations comes Oloixarac’s Mona, where success as a "writer of color" proves to be a fresh hell for a young Latin American woman abroad.

I’ve been recruiting members of a small advisory board for the remainder of 2020 for feedback and advice on the direction of the company. It feels so good to bring in different voices from around the world, from Buenos Aires to Boston to Barcelona... novelists, critics, curators, composers, photographers and musicians— my community!! A reflection of a decade in NYC and 5 years working with Latin American artists.

Stay tuned here for more updates in the coming month!

​love, MC

I've had a few meals so far this week to talk business. I love it. I had a brunch with Ray Keller on Sunday in the West Village, ate the most delicious spaghetti carbonara of my life, handed my business card to the head of cocktails there, and had a Zoom call with my team. So far I've got 3 consultants on deck (to be announced on the site with a splash! at the end of August) and one part-time employee. There will be ​a bi-monthly podcast on SoundCloud, a video trailer featuring moi talking about the company, and more new features in the next month before launch.

For a little inspiration, here's Magos Herrera singing Mercedes Sosa with Pedro Aznar, guitar, at National Sawdust (Brooklyn), presented in collaboration with Americas Society, and Able Heart singing "Greenlight" (selected by the Jonas Brothers on NBC's Songland last year).

Excited? Drop me a comment here with your thoughts, questions, etc. I'd be stoked to hear from you!

​Love, your illustrious founder, MC.

Tis the season for forethought. In the arts, we won’t welcome live audiences indoors until 2021 at the earliest; al fresco concerts are happening on a limited, intimate basis.

so what does 2020 look like in brand awareness/identity? Good question!

I look to Angela Myles Beeching, a former mentor from Manhattan School of Music, for inspiration. Her blog and eblast “Beyond Consulting” are a how-to guide for musicians living a freelance or academic life in the 21st century. It’s an essential survival primer of sorts. Check her out!

I also look to colleagues like Claire Chase and Alice Jones. Both are flutists from the new music world; the first, an Oberlin grad and the second, a SUNY Purchase bestie from the studio of Tara Helen O’Connor. Claire has a killer Instagram; Alice, a scathing insight into an adjunct and freelance life on Twitter.