Cool people like cool things, which is why we asked cool person Patrik Sandberg to share some recommendations on Perfectly Imperfect.

Patrik Sandberg is a writer, creative director, and producer who cofounded DIS Magazine and was an editorial director at fashion magazines such as V, VMAN, Dazed & Confused, CR Fashion Book, and CR Men. He’s photographed and interviewed Madonna, Lou Reed, Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Hedi Slimane, Karl Lagerfeld, Rihanna, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Prince, Cher, Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton, RuPaul, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, Nicki Minaj, and more. The now iconic V Magazine cover with Charli XCX, Grimes, and Sky Ferreira is one of my favorites. Patrik’s first screenplay is currently in development and will be announced in due time, so keep your eyes peeled. Lucky for us, Patrik is here to tell us what he’s been into.

Without further ado

Patrik Sandberg (twitter, instagram, letterboxd)

🏎 1999 BMW 323i Convertible, Black

It was love at first sight. I purchased my L.A. car for under $10,000 with only 70,000 miles on it and was basically in mint condition. I love this era of BMW: boxy but sexy, sporty and dynamic. It's the same car Dionne drove in Clueless, but the black-on-black version. My favorite place to drive it is through Beverly Hills (ALWAYS take Canon with the top down…). I loved its '90s interface so much that I had my guy, Avi, figure out how to install bluetooth while preserving the CD/tape console for its appearance. If you are ever shopping for a used car, particularly of a European vintage, you have to go to Avi. He's the most honest dealer in L.A. and he loves restoring old models. Whenever something little breaks or acts up on the beemer, he fixes it and doesn't even charge me. The day I bought it he told me "I would rather fix it for free than have some other mechanic fuck up my work. We're in this for life." I think relationships like this are so important. 

🥤 Coke Zero, Extra Large, with a splash of Coke Zero Vanilla

It's the only thing I drink at the movies. Accept no substitutes.

🌪 Shoegaze Anti-Hits of Today

I can't stand music discourse—particularly of the "rock is dead" or "rock is back" variety—because I find that nobody has decent taste, and often they're not even aware of the best bands making music now. I feel like most adults have a period of their life when they discover a lot of music and then they give up searching. I'm relentless when it comes to discovering new favorite bands. I don't think there has ever been a time with as much incredible and timeless guitar-driven music as right now. Nothing, Teenage Wrist, Soft Kill, Ruby Haunt, Ski Lodge, cursetheknife, Jorge Elbrecht, Narrow Head, Sports Coach, Gold Star, Choir Boy, Better Person, Private World, Peel Dream Magazine, Salem, Heavenward, Broken Head, Sweet Trip, Valleyheart, Sculpture Club, Winter, Deafheaven, No Joy, Sheer Mag, Day Wave, Roseville, Kitten, Glare, Amusement Parks On Fire, Soft Blue Shimmer, Black Marble, Provoker, Anonymous Club, Holiday Sidewinder, House of Harm, Superbloom, Softcult, Tigers Jaw, Second Skin, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, NewDad, Failure, Beachy Head, The Chain Gang of 1974, Cindy, Seer Believer, Fearing, and VR Sex are the names of some current bands you should probably be listening to that come to mind. And Drab Majesty's The Demonstration, a melodramatic tragedy pageant in honor of the Heaven's Gate suicides, remains the best album of the last decade. If you want something more electro, go for Real Lies, these two Islington dudes who make the most tasteful club pop since the Pet Shop Boys. Their recent single "Late Arcades" was written as an ode to their old schoolmate, Richard Spencer, who vanished years ago. That shit makes me cry.  (Especially in the car.)

🦖 Lizards Every Hour

(Self-explanatory.)

📖 Hollywood Tell-Alls

It's important to do your homework when entering a new line of work so I've been reading books like Monster by John Gregory Dunne, about the years-long process of writing Up Close & Personal with Joan Didion and a slew of producers, and You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again—the title a send-up of the bestselling You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again (next on my list)—which I purchased on audiocassette and chronicles three high-class hookers blabbing on their celebrity clientele. The Kid Stays In The Picture is read by a very gravelly Bob Evans on audiobook: a must. Michael Ovitz's memoir was involuntarily funny because he's such a liar. I even read Disney War, a book about Michael Eisner's reign of terror at the Walt Disney Company. Now I'm on Tinderbox, which is a newly released oral history of HBO. I think it's good to be familiar with everything that can and has gone wrong in the movie and TV business so you can adjust your expectations and remain cautiously optimistic.

🪞 Furniture Pimp: The Collection of Jim Walrod, Auction Catalog, 2018

Okay… This one is sort of a secret but information should be free—and good taste should be passed around like a bad flu. The catalog that accompanied the auction of the late interior designer Jim Walrod's personal collection is like a reference bible for brilliant style. Jim was discovered by Andy Warhol and worked at Fiorucci, and later opened his Form and Function gallery in 1998. He designed my friend Mel Ottenberg's apartment, and also did Mike D's from the Beastie Boys. He worked with Steven Meisel and Andre Balasz, consulted on the unforgettable interiors in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, and perhaps most famously was David Bowie's decorator. If I could steal anyone's eye, it would be Jim's. Favorite pieces I discovered through him include Lapo Binazzi's MGM Table Lamp, Antonio Locatelli and Pietro Salmoraghi's Centopiedi daybed, Nanda Vigo's Light Tree, and Ettore Sotsass's Attribution shelves. He was obsessed with Gaetano Pesce and had the absolutely jaw-dropping Nobody's Perfect cabinet in his possession… I love feeling jealous. 

📸 Torso / Haley Wollens

DIS members David Toro and Solomon Chase shoot as "Torso" and are among the best fashion photographers working. Their Mugler campaigns with Haley Wollens are setting the standard—and Haley is also the best stylist in the business. I'd love for them to be handed the keys to Paris. 

🎗 The Academy Awards

I know I sound mental but I'm crazy about the Oscars. Listen… go back to the 1999 Oscars telecast when Whoopi Goldberg was the host—the one where she came out dressed as Queen Elizabeth the 1st—and tell me that wasn't the most fabulous situation to ever happen in the known universe. I don't care if the movies up for nominations are abysmal. I don't care if you don't like awards-bait dramas shot in black-and-white. I don't care if you're so bored that you drop dead in the middle of your living room! Turn the dial to ABC and suck it up, the future of cinema depends on it because the Oscars are the engine that drives promotion and gets movies greenlit. I think I'd be a great producer on the team for the broadcast itself… I care deeply about preserving the glamour and spectacle of the event. I know exactly who should host (I'm not telling), I know precisely which rules should change to make it more entertaining, and I have great ideas for stunts to pull before and during the broadcast. I also think the Academy should start owning how wrong they are when they vote by creating a new honorary Oscar called a Legacy Award, which can go to any person, film, or talent associated with a movie that has grown to become a classic in the eyes of the world since its eligible year. They could present an Oscar to Drew Barrymore for her performance in Scream—she'd have a breakdown! It would be incredible—or give Oscars to the entire cast and crew of movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show, Election, The Shining, or Showgirls. People would argue about it nonstop and it would be great for ratings. I'm running away with myself now… this is how I get. Point being: watch the stupid fucking Oscars. It's the least you could do. Someone will figure out how to make it fun eventually.

Follow Patrik on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd

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