PORTRAIT OF A BEARDED DUDE

Tonight I dined with Samuel L. Jackson P. Hockley-Smith, aka Sam. Together we decided that, now that I have a briefish amount of time to blog before immersing myself back in the day-to-day of running a magazine, I should write at least once daily until the end of winter break about a topic he recommends. But first I must offer some context on: SAM.
Sam has recently shaved and procured a free haircut from his sister who is moonlighting in haircut school but before that, his red beard and fluffy hair framed his face like a cotton candy cloud. Those, coupled with his perhaps unhealthy penchant for flannel button downs, gave him the appearance of a young, less giant, Seattle-born-and-bred Paul Bunyon. Sam is the deputy online editor of The FADER, where he often blogs about the beach, space and other dudes with beards, and so our interactions typically unfold as follows:
Sam walks into my office
Sam: That’s a nice flannel.
Me: Thanks.
Sam: Can I have it?
OR
Sam walks into my office
Sam [distressed, exasperated, unceremonious]: Ughhhhhh, Gawwwwwwwwd.
Sam’s demeanor and style of dress have led to the coining of the term “Samoflauge,” which refers to any fellow bearded, flannel wearing white dude, which in turn refers to the entirety of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
2.
Last summer, Sam went through a regressive rap phase where all he wanted to listen to were songs by Goodie Mob that he loved in high school. This made sense, because his specialties are A. music made by psychedelic folky hippie types [c.f. Beards] and B. rap. Hence a goodly amount of his blog posts on the FADER have involved a fantasy about being somewhere else, usually somewhere of the lifted persuasion. He also used to be sort of backpacky. Who didn’t really. But it gets extreme. At some point over the summer me, Sam, and Crackymanica ended up at that one milkshake joint in Chelsea after a show at like, Hiro Ballroom, and talked for an hour about Anticon, which Crackymanica and I both wrote about around the turn of the century, and which Sam, being younger than us, street-teamed… I think?? In the interest of maintaining your idea of us as being suuuuuper coooool, I will elaborate no further. Instead. I shall offer this video of Sam’s favorite Goodie Mob song:
3.