All posts by Squeaky

Birds of a Feather – Spray-paint Together.

Birds of a Feather – Spray-paint Together.

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”

– Pablo Picasso

 

At Squeaky, we believe that everyone is capable of some form of artistic expression. Moreover, we believe everyone is entitled to it whether you are a producer or simply a fan. As a company, we strongly encourage our team to explore their creative vision in any and all ways.

Recently we had the pleasure of collaborating with the insanely talented, Adele Renault to work on a personal portrait of our office mascot, Cuca #2. For those who are unfamiliar, Cuca #1 (RIP) is the Head of the Client Services department who entered our lives 10 years back when she landed on our fire escape of the Hudson River.  Being the noisiest member of the Squeaky family, we decided to honor her in the best way we saw fit (as we did chippy via Nychos). We found the perfect artist to capture her majesty in Ms. Renault.

Adele specializes in painting realistic portraits of birds and people, on canvas and murals. From her own bio, Adele’s “Subject matter may live in the gutter or in an ivory tower.” Her work is a true appreciation in the natural and underlying beauty no matter what the object may be. Adele was born on a farm in the Belgian Ardennes, but at the age of 14 began to spend much of her life traveling the world focusing on perfecting her craft. She is most prominent for her large murals of birds, typically pigeons, that can be found on distinct walls in various parts of the world (including Jersey City where we caught her in the act of painting). We reached out to her because we were struck by both her work and commitment to bringing out the essence of her subjects so powerfully.

 

While signing the prints, Adele shared with our founder Anthony her fondness for fellow ardent pigeon fan Mike Tyson. “When I first heard his story of how he first got into fighting (through pigeons), I fell in love, it was like a fairytale to me”. “I will meet him – one day.” Adele promised.

Much like the mindset of Adele, we believe that everything deserves more consideration than initial perception.  Being a creativity-driven company, we are extremely invested in art and in supporting artists. Adele brought fresh energy into our office and her work has left a lasting impression on our whole team. At Squeaky we aim to provide an environment that encourages an open and creative atmosphere because to be invested in art is to be invested in culture, and culture is the soul of it all.

 

The Squeaky Skillet: Top Recipes

The Squeaky Skillet: Top Recipes

One of the benefits of having a full kitchen in your office is…food! Healthy Food! Homecooked Food! FOOD! We here at Squeaky like to take advantage of this as much as possible. Taking a mid-day break to spend time in the kitchen allows us to step away from our work and get our creative juices flowing in a new way (most of the time via lemons) so that when we step back in, we are satiated and ready to help bring home the bacon for our clients.

Here are some of the top recipes that have sizzled on the Squeaky Skillet lately.

Zuchhini Noodles with Avocado Pesto and Spinach from Eating Well

We followed the recipe closely, but it took us about 2x the amount of time then they said (#noobs). We also made it with angel hair zoodles as opposed to thicker ones, which ended up allowing us each to have very hefty serving sizes – no complaints there!

Next time: More dressing, more shrimp, add cheese

Squeaky Rating: A

Farro, Cranberry and Goat Cheese Salad from Tasty Kitchen

Photo Credit: The Tasty Kitchen 

We followed the recipe closely, with a couple of exceptions:

  • ‘Pearled Farro’ – We used Whole Farro instead of Pearled Farro, which required soaking beforehand for 15-20 minutes
  •  ‘Cook farro according to package directions.’ – Sometimes there are no package directions (Hey Rustichella d’Abruzzo, call us, we can help with that 😉), which was the case for us. We cooked the Farro for about 20 minutes, and that seemed to do the job!
  • Transfer to a bowl to cool’ – Creative minds are hungry minds, y’all. Skip the cooling, straight to the EATING!

Next time: Add in another crunch element.

Squeaky Rating: A

Sundried Tomato, Spinach and Quinoa Salad from Cookie and Kate

Photo Credit: Cookie and Kate 

We followed the recipe exactly.

Squeaky Rating: A- 

Next time: More dressing, more greens, some more crunch.

Spinach Goat Cheese Zucchini Spaghetti Frittata from Inspiralized

We were not not ‘inspiralized’ by the vague recipe directions. Ie: “After the eggs set on the bottom, place the skillet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.” Er, set on bottom- what does that mean? For how long? On what temperature!? We had to wing this step so we put the frittata on the stovetop burner for about 10 minutes on Med-High, and then put it in the oven for about 25 minutes. The result was a very burnt fritatta bottom, so the mystery remains unsolved!

Squeaky Rating: B+ 

Next time: Less burn, more pancetta, add sriracha

Squeaky Partners With Sony Foundation to Launch YouCan.org.au

Squeaky Partners With Sony Foundation to Launch YouCan.org.au

Squeaky has partnered with the Sony Foundation Australia to build a networking platform for young people in Australia who are dealing with cancer. We leveraged our platform IHadCancer.com, a digital health and lifestyle brand dedicated to improving the day-to-day life of cancer survivors, fighters and caregivers, to launch You Can Connect (youcan.org.au).

The platform provides an online extension of You Can, a youth cancer program set up by the Sony Foundation Australia in 2010. You Can’s aim is to fund specialised youth cancer centres around Australia to address the current gap in the healthcare system. According to You Can, “Currently, young Australians with cancer are a ‘forgotten generation’ who are falling through the gaps of our medical system. Young people aged between 16 and 25 have significantly poorer survival rates than children and older adults due to a lack of access to age appropriate care.

You Can Connect was born out of the need identified by You Can and Peter MacCallum Hospital, Melbourne for a place where young people affected by cancer could reach out for peer support, or get peer support, no matter where they were, their proximity to a physical You Can Centre or what stage they were at in their journey. A place where they could go when they can’t talk to their parents, when their mates don’t get it, a place where they won’t have to censor their journey. A virtual You Can Centre where all the discussions were by young people, for young people.

About the partnership, Sophie Ryan, CEO of the Sony Foundation says, “We believe this [partnership] would have a huge success rate in Australia and really tap into an area that desperately requires more engagement, support and networking for so many.”

“Cancer is a disease that can take all of your control away,” said Mailet Lopez, the CEO and founder of IHadCancer.com and Managing Director of Squeaky. “You feel helpless, lost, afraid, confused, and — most troubling — alone. This is an even more pressing issue for younger cancer patients who are limited to a much smaller pool of peers capable of empathizing with their experiences. As a result, many people diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 15 – 35 have no support system and no way of finding one despite there being millions of people in the world going through the same experiences.”

Mailet founded IHadCancer while she was in this demographic because she wanted to make sure no one else would have the difficulties connecting with others the way she did during her cancer journey. Although she had great support from her family, she found that they couldn’t fully understand what she was going through. She spent a lot of time searching online, but she couldn’t find a resource that easily connected her with someone who could answer specific questions.

After finishing treatment, Mailet decided that she wanted to help other patients deal with cancer, so with the help and support of Squeaky, she set out to build an online community that would allow people to search by age, gender, location, type of cancer and year diagnosed to find others who truly understood.

Both IHadCancer and You Can Connect were designed, developed and are managed in-house at Squeaky.

Visit You Can Connect here.

My Internship Changed What I Thought I Knew About Cancer

My Internship Changed What I Thought I Knew About Cancer

The following blog was written by Juliet Zymeck, a Summer 2017 intern at Squeaky. 

When I started interning for Squeaky, I had no idea how eye-opening it would be. My role was as the IHadCancer (IHC) team’s intern. When I found this out, I was excited to continue to be a supporter of the cancer community but I thought it would be like all of my other cancer-related experiences. I expected the exposure to the cancer community would be the same as it was when I fundraised in the past. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Up until this summer, I had always thought of myself as an ally to those who are fighting or had fought cancer. In high school, I would participate in my town’s Relay for Life event. In fact, I was team captain for three years. I took great pride in that position, deeming myself a fellow cancer warrior, not for fighting the disease myself, but for fighting to help raise money to help others. Preparations for the event began in February and ended in June. As the summer came into view, I could wipe my hands clean of the thoughts of cancer and enjoy the next few months in the sun.  

Luckily, only one close person in my life had cancer. My grandmother was diagnosed in January 2007 with Stage 4 Lung Cancer and passed away a short three months later. I was only in fourth grade at the time, so my understanding of the disease, or any disease for that matter, was limited. However, the word “cancer” wasn’t unfamiliar to me, even at that age. Two of my childhood friends lost parents to cancer by then. I don’t remember much about the medical part of cancer; it was the emotional impact it had on everyone else around me that stands out, and lasted long after my grandmother’s passing. Being so young, time has healed the wounds left by the loss of my grandmother. Cancer became something I could pack in a box and put away when I didn’t want to think about it and bring it back out for fundraising events.

IHC is different from any “cancer world” I had been exposed to before. It isn’t a faded childhood memory or a well-thought-out, edited speech at a fundraiser that skimmed over the reality of the effects of the disease. IHC is raw, emotional, and honest. It doesn’t hold back or shield the audience from unpleasant truths. It’s not that I had never heard of cancer, but in that moment, it became real. Almost too real.

It was hard to read stories that often didn’t have happy endings. They weren’t the classic narrative of a person who simply defeated cancer with tons of support, then went on to become a survivor who lived this fabulous life of badassery. They were stories of real people. Sometimes, they did have this happy narrative, but most didn’t. Dozens of blogs were about life after cancer.

Um —  “life after cancer”? Shouldn’t that just be amazing?

That’s what the classic narrative would have you think. IHC revealed a community of survivors who didn’t all feel like heros. It has some members who still struggled tremendously with health issues directly caused by cancer treatments, some who even said that life after cancer was harder to deal with than life with cancer. It wasn’t pleasant to read, but it was the truth. I finally felt that I was starting to understand the disease in a more legitimate way.

The first few weeks were difficult, but then I started getting emails back from the authors of these stories. They were so thankful for the IHC team for giving them a voice they didn’t know they could have. Their excitement radiated from the computer screen and I couldn’t help but nearly jump out of my chair with excitement too (which one of my fantastic coworkers documented!). I knew that the mental toughness I needed to work on this team was incomparable to the toughness of these fighters and survivors, so I could handle it. Maybe some of them don’t feel like heroes, but they certainly are in my eyes.  

Everyday that I have interned for the IHC team this summer has been an absolute privilege. The extraordinary women who run this site are the most incredible teachers and supporters. The people in this community inspire me to live my best life and not to take anything for granted. I hope that everyone who cares about the cancer community continues to help fundraise, and I hope no one has to deal with cancer head-on.

But, most importantly, I hope that supporters will start to really listen to cancer fighters and survivors, hear their unedited story, and try their best to understand what it would be like to say, “I had cancer.”

 

Office By Day, Music Venue By Night: Squeaky x SoFar NYC

Office By Day, Music Venue By Night: Squeaky x SoFar NYC

If you’ve ever been to Squeaky- or bopped around to our “hold” music when giving us a call- you know that music is central to our culture. That’s why we love transforming the office into a concert venue to enjoy Sofar Sounds shows. Our first show was in 2016, and we were blown away by the talent that SoFar brought into our space.  As our founder Anthony said in a recent interview with SoFar, “When we did our first show the evening was so electric that I was hooked and looked for ways for us to do more.  There have been some great performances here, and I think it’s important to in some small way help the artists celebrate their gifts.  I just love people on their grind and love discovery, so I adore everything Sofar is about.”

As a host, we welcome dozens of strangers into our home – both fellow New Yorkers, and travelers who incorporate SoFar as a staple when exploring of a new city. Together, we share in a musical rarity – to enjoy a night of music that isn’t disrupted by peopling talking through sets and long, noisy lines at overpriced bars.  Plus, we get to discover up and coming artists whose talent is so raw and fresh, that it is truly inspiring to witness. Take YEBBA, for example. At the time of her Squeaky performance, she went by Abbey, and had never performed and original song in front of an audience. Her nerves were evident – Anthony even had to give her an extra little push to get up on stage.

And then this happened:

In the time that has passed since that performance, she has transformed into an artist who Ed Sheeran mentions on the radio, opens up for Chance The Rapper and performs on Saturday Night Live. We were able to be there for her very first moments and to provide her with the stage, thanks to SoFar.

And here are a few of the other amazing artists we’ve had grace our space with beautiful sound (click the links to watch their powerful performances):

Thank you, SoFar, for bringing the magic back into live music.

Photo Credit: Photos courtesy of SoFar Sounds photographers, including Cheyenne Cohen and Carmen Gonzalez.