Cool people like cool things, which is why we asked cool person Leia Jospé to come on Perfectly Imperfect & redistribute her good taste.

Leia is a New York City-based photographer and videographer who works as a camera operator for How To with John Wilson, did the artwork for composer and percussionist Eli Keszler’s 2021 album “Icons”, and tours with bands like Anamanaguchi. For a while, she was posting iPhone street photography to her Substack blog on a weekly(ish) cadence, but to see her more recent work you can check out her website & follow her on Instagram. Jospé also masterfully curates cringe & deranged Tiktoks for her @favetiktoks420 account which is 100% worth a follow. Leia has great taste and lucky for us, she’s here to here to tell us what she’s been into.

Without further ado

Leia Jospé (personal instagram, favetiktoks420 instagram, personal twitter)

📸 Sammy’s Photo Lab

Apparently the LES is the new photo district with K&M and The Color House opening locations on Orchard Street. Fine with me but my loyalty will always lie with Sammy who is located on Essex right next to North Dumpling. I have been dropping off my film with Sammy for years. Opening a WeTransfer email from Sammy or picking up my hard drive is the same feeling ppl have on Christmas morning or w/e. Sammy’s turn around time is unbeatable - usually within the same day. He’s always greeting you with a smile and has gone above and beyond for me with deadlines, staying open a little later so I can get my negatives, etc. To me, he’s a local hero. Plus you can get one of my favorite cheap meals in the neighborhood next door when you’re done. 

😍 @Favetiktoks420

Not sure if it’s cool to recommend my own Instagram account but the fact of the matter is, is that Tik Tok is a huge part of my life (not sure how I feel about that statement) and I can’t recommend the whole app of Tik Tok. I actually DON’T recommend anyone download Tik Tok - it’s confusing, scary and demented. Personally, I like all that kind of stuff (raised on a computer - i’ve seen it all, I’m numb, jaded, etc) so this is how I can filter and showcase what I believe is the best of the best, which also usually happens to be the worst. I made this account in April to show my coworkers on How To my favorite Tik Toks I was finding without flooding the group chat (it was getting to be A LOT…). It kind of spiraled into a deep fascination with what kids are doing online creatively and socially - I became addicted, obsessed and a half a year later now have like over 10k Tik Toks saved to my phone and an entire community I’ve cultivated and love deeply. Follow because there are big things coming soon and most certainly I will be demanding producer credits on at least 5 new TV shows and indie films..lol

📽️ Imitation of Life (1959), Douglas Sirk

This is hands down one of my favorite movies in the entire world. If you haven’t seen it I recommend u do. I’ve watched it on acid, on ketamine and completely sober and each time I gain something new and special from it. Truly one of the most beautiful movies ever made from the way it was shot to the compassion and empathy they use to breach difficult subjects. It’s cool a movie made in 1959 was able to talk about race and class better than we are able to now (at least from what I've seen recently). We could learn a lot from movies like this. Watch it!!! It’ll change your life and if it doesn’t…well, okedoke then……

🎵 Wavedash - World Famous Tour:

This is my favorite album of 2021 and there was A LOT of good music released this year IMO. Literally every song is a banger. Stallions and Dummo Loop are probs two of the best songs I have ever heard but literally all of them are good. There really hasn’t been a day that’s gone by where I haven’t listened to at least one of the tracks on this record since it was released. I’m lucky to know and call the three that make up this boyband my friends and am grateful I have gotten to experience some of the most demented (in the fun way) times of my life with them in the past few years (eZoo, holy shipwrecked in the DR, 2 weeks straight of shows without stopping, etc). For real tho, I just finished a small east coast tour with them and my other fave boy band, Anamanaguchi (who's album [USA] (2019) is also very much worth checking out) in October and the energy they brought every day and night to the van and the stage was inspiring and exciting. If u ever have the chance to see them do a live set or a DJ set I highly recommend u go. I’m a huuuge wavedash stan and u should be too!

🔮 Manifestation

I actually think this works, it can take any kind of form (I guess it's like, also what some would call "praying" lol) but the way I do it is that I just think about the thing I want a lot. Before bed I concentrate on the goal, think about it, dream about it, etc. It doesn't matter if it's like a job I want, or a goal or a literal material object. Sometimes I talk about it with others, write about it, tweet about it, etc. idk every time i’ve seriously tried to manifest something it has worked like magic, even if it's not what I imagined it would be (usually the case). My friend’s Ezra and Connor also told me about Sigil’s but that’s a little more R rated so if you’re curious just google that and figure it out yourself. In the meantime tho - positive reinforcement and thoughts with direct objectives are IN for 2022. I want everyone getting what they Want and what they Deserve. 

😴 YouTube ASMR

I have a very specific list of YouTube channels that calm my mindbodysoul. I was going to recommend just one but then realized it's not enough - because they all do something very special. First one is Liziqi. My friend Jon Baken showed me her channel years ago, the only way we were able to find her was by searching "Plum Chinese" - IDK why but now it's much easier (search "Liziqi" lol). Either way, she's a beautiful Chinese princess (not really, but basically) that lives in rural China with her grandma (allegedly). Each episode she takes - usually like a fruit or vegetable that's in season - and makes a bunch of things from scratch using that main ingredient. The sounds are calming (chopping wood, puppies barking, wind), it's shot really beautifully and her skills are honestly really impressive. It's like girls and gay guy football...every time I have shared it, anytime she does something we scream. People doubt the authenticity of it - but I prefer not to. 

Then there is SteveMRE1989 who is the coolest dude with the most swag on all of YouTube. He is obsessed with eating MREs from like any decade and country basically. His voice is so soothing and I love how he describes every part of the ration, sparing no detail, his way of saying "Nice." I especially love when he gets cigarettes from like a WW1 MRE and smokes them on camera. He's the fucking best. 

Last but not least is MadSeasonShow who is a guy who plays WoW. He has hour-long videos on the history of WoW and other stuff like that. His voice is literally the best and he is most often the channel I choose to fall asleep to because the videos also have really nice medieval elevator slow jams (hope that makes sense) in the background. He sometimes streams on Twitch as well and that's always a treat, the way he says "Doritos" is mad cool. I think he's from Canada or the midwest somewhere. To make it easy for you all I made a little playlist of some of their vids to get you started that's linked above. Sweet dreams!

Follow Leia on Instagram and Twitter

Follow favetiktoks420 on Instagram

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