Art on the Streets: Conrad Benner's Philly Creative Journey

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Truth in this art
Only a couple months down, I think I recognize.

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Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in this art. We are back in the City of Brotherly Love. Yeah, I think it's because we're in Philly. And I'm your host, Rob Lee. And today I'm just privileged, happy, enthused, enthused all of the stuff. To welcome my next guest, the founder of STS Dept dot com sts dpt dot com and one of the most influential people in Philadelphia.

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Rob Lee
He is a Fishtown native and a talented photo blogger, curator and podcaster in my lane. Please welcome Conrad Benner. Welcome to the podcast.

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Conrad Benner
Thank you for having me, Rob.

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Rob Lee
Thank you for coming on.

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Conrad Benner
I love that you clearly listen to my podcast because that's how you did the same inflection of like Streets of Streets DVD apartment because you have to start out. I think this is where I think years ago I did buy if you type in streets department like the full thing I think it will redirect juju my thing but I don't know if ever Oliver knew that.

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Conrad Benner
So yeah, I always try to make it clear to you so it won't be confused for the actual streets apartment.

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Rob Lee
No, no, no. Yeah. It's like just something like yes, I got this fish that this trash needs to get that needs to get picked. Yeah.

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Conrad Benner
Oh I get tweets like that all the time.

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Rob Lee
Not at all. Can't do it. I always get it. People say, yeah, the truth is, in that art, I was like, That's how to name this podcast at all. Yeah, Truth in Art, that's also not the name of this podcast. But again, thank you for coming on. It's truly like a pleasure to be able to chat with you.

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Rob Lee
We chatted a bit before, you know, doing the real, real thing and now we're here. So, you know, I find that you're you're out here. You've been doing like, you know, work here for quite some time. There's some sort of overlap as long as how both of has been kind of doing our stuff. So if you will kind of like talk about some of your your early roots that kind of brought you here because I find that a lot of time, some of the stuff that we're into as young people, it comes back in some way, shape or form.

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Rob Lee
Like I was mentioning earlier, me being a podcaster, I was one of those jerks with a little handy recorder in high school. Yeah. Speaking in the third person, though, because I was really into the rock.

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Conrad Benner
You were in the NPR. Okay.

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Rob Lee
I was really into that. It's just like, yeah, Rob is here with the blah blah. And now I somehow turned that whole floor into a podcast career. So if you will, could you share like some of your early creative interests and how they maybe shifted into what you're doing now?

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Conrad Benner
Oh, this is such a good question. And I could go a few different ways with it. I mean, one architect I've always loved architecture, architecture and street art. Sure. So when I was a kid growing up, I loved books about architecture, industry, art. Those were like the only books I'd ask my mom for, like Christmas and stuff. So now I run a street art blog, so that's a pretty direct line.

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Conrad Benner
But also architecture, if you remember, like especially the early days of Instagram, like the oh or not the oh, the elevens, the twelves. If you go back to my Instagram feed, there is a mix of like not only sheer but like really cool architecture photos of the city. You know, there are skyline or this building or that building.

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Conrad Benner
So I think that those interests continued my whole life before I ended up effectively dropping out of high school. I was planning on going to college to be an architect. And to this day, I'm so glad that never happened because I realized I just like architecture and I'm gay and I didn't want to be an architect. I like what I'm doing very much.

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Conrad Benner
Another and I actually just had this conversation the other day way of thinking about this is my mom always said when I was growing up, I grew up in Fishtown, so we didn't have like a front lawn or a backyard with a lawn. We just had concrete. So she would put this like pull outside and put like a comforter under it, you know, an old comforter.

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Conrad Benner
So I wouldn't scrape my knees on the on the sidewalk and I'd sit in the pool all day long and just talk to any stranger who went by. She's like, You were such an annoying kid, because like everyone you walk by, you try to, like, start a conversation. I'm like, Oh, that's kind of what I do now. So yeah, I think there's a few threads.

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Rob Lee
Yeah. So like, thank you for walking us through it. It was actually really funny. So really what you know, said what to you was like, this should be a blog, that should be something that I should kind of transfer these sort of interests into a blog into sort of this because it exists ultimately in my opinion. And you mentioned it a second ago, and if you look back, that feels like archive now.

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Rob Lee
Yeah. So what kind of influenced you to go in that direction?

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Conrad Benner
So yeah, I despite loving street art books and architecture magazines, when I did, I got my diploma from Kensington High School and here in Philly decided not to go to college. And I just wanted a coffee shops and worked a Whole Foods for a while and kind of did what anyone in their late teens, early twenties would do.

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Conrad Benner
And it wasn't until my early twenties I started to go to like first Friday shows. I had a friend group. Then we were talking in the preshow about how you end up becoming an amalgamation of the people you hang around. And I was I met some folks at Whole Foods who'd recently come from SCAD, the Savannah School of Art and Design.

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Conrad Benner
And there a couple of them were new to Philly and I'd been here my whole life, but they were like, Let's check out this old thing in first Friday, old first, yeah, first Friday in Old City. And I was like, okay, let's do that. And I found that I was really cool. It wasn't just like this stuffy stuff in museums.

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Conrad Benner
So very quickly after that, I started writing for different blogs here in Philadelphia of just being in Philly. One of the things I love about the city is you you meet random people and random places where a huge city, it's whatever, 6 million people in the metro, one and a half million, 1.6 in the city. But the you know, like a lot of communities, the creative community is pretty tight.

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Conrad Benner
So if you go to a certain bar or certain restaurant or a certain coffee shop, you might bump into people or to the first Friday shows. So I got invitations to do up ads and different things investigating Philly's art world, investigating Philly's like nightlife and music. I mean, that was a whole nother thing. I did. And then when I was 24, I broke my leg.

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Conrad Benner
I got hit by a van on six and something our industry. I was biking to my job with cappuccino gelato and it broke my leg in many places. I got a rod in my leg was like on my parents couch for a few months and went through this depression. It was like, What do I want to do? And I thought, Well, I'll do what kids do when they're 18 and go to college.

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Conrad Benner
So I started going to community college, and then that same time I was like, I need a creative outlet. It can't just be work. So I was working full time, going to community college part time, and my creative outlet was my camera, and my camera was mostly street art and I thought, Well, I'll just make this into a blog.

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Conrad Benner
Yeah. And the blog, especially in the beginning, was really just photos naming the artists, maybe the location, but usually not even that. It was just a photo blog, but it blew up pretty quickly and then I invested more time into it. Announced, Yeah, what I've been doing for 12 years, 12 years this week. You got me on in a good time.

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Rob Lee
Congratulations on 12 years. Thanks. It's funny you mentioned 24. Same time where I was working at Verizon. I was a it was a marketing data analyst. Okay. Making the most money I've ever made right at said that time and it was trying to work and this really sets the stage almost one in the theater of the mind sort of way go back some of my marketing tactics were not good one was we did a music video that was a training video to the song I think Rock Star by Nickelback made.

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Conrad Benner
Okay.

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Rob Lee
It was nice.

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Conrad Benner
To see that.

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Rob Lee
It was terrible and it was another thing where I was like kind of helping her bump up sales and were using this sort of youthful look through the album and the youthful exuberance that I had. But I painted my sunglasses as they were white sunglasses to look like Soulja Boy sunglasses at the time. Oh, it was poor course on my part, but that's the stuff that I was doing.

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Rob Lee
But I was like really struggling to try to find in this sort of, this is the thing you're supposed to go after, you graduate, you all your things. This is the lane. If someone is presented for me right? And feeling like kind of lacking, not feeling satiated creatively. And I remember literally as my 24th birthday, I'm going to a podcast or something.

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Rob Lee
I want to, and I was really into podcasts like Kevin Smith's and a lot of talk radio and things of that nature.

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Conrad Benner
Kind of podcast. Must've been so pretty new then, right?

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Rob Lee
Like, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think Kevin Smith is podcast was 27 was when it launched. So I'd been listening to it for a little while and I remember just different things he would kind of give away and like, what kind of equipment do you use? Cause I got to buy that, right?

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Conrad Benner
Also ask a tech so it doesn't sell. You're not on your smartphone. What are you? You're listening on your computer? I'm listening on my computer.

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Rob Lee
Working. So, yeah, I had like a flip over a long time, but he would give away different details of what he was using it. He had a fast track pro. That's the first thing, the first piece of equipment I have and I still own it. So going back 29, it's the only thing of my original gear that I own.

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Rob Lee
Wow. And I just remember having dinner on my birthday with some of my closest people and just like you guys are my mastermind team just saying that, just kind of having a loose concept of what that meant. Going back to my business, you know, school knowledge, what have you. And that became like my, the name of my first podcast mastermind teams rob gas.

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Conrad Benner
So what that meant with you bounce ideas off of them.

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Rob Lee
Bounced ideas wanted to collaborate with them the whole thing and really.

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Conrad Benner
They in part of creating that first podcast.

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Rob Lee
They were guest on there. But I think as far as all the technical work, it was just me. It's like, Yeah, Rob you got to stay with stick with it, you got to go. And even when it came to like funding it, you know, getting that the getting the gear and all of that, it was really, really pretty much my baby.

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Rob Lee
But I think that year 24.

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Conrad Benner
Something happens and if anyone's listening in, you're about to hear 24, I think, because when you're 14, 20 seems like a million miles away. But by the time by the time you're 24, 30 seems real close or closer than whatever. And 30 I look, I'm 37 now. I'm about to be 38. And it's not like I love my thirties, but when you're 24 I like the idea of 30 can be kind of intimidating, especially if you're like, I was like I was working making next to minimum wage, making some dollars in tips, like not knowing what I was going to do with my life.

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Conrad Benner
It can be really interesting. Yeah. And even if or even if, like, it's like you and you're pretty, you've. You've found a route for yourself. I don't know that there's change that happens. Return of Saturn. Is that what it is, 24 or 27? Something happens.

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Rob Lee
But I think also, like we hit these milestones like in doing this, you know, I was saying earlier, like how long I've been podcasting, it's, you know, be 14 years next month, right. And at ten years in was like, I need to do something else to add to this. I need to kind of like what is this ultimately going to be sure I can say a bunch of off colored bangs and be funny and all of that stuff.

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Rob Lee
But what is really the important thing? What am I trying to get across? What value I'm really adding within the community? And I think arts and culture is always a lane that I've really cared about. So that's really where this came from.

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Conrad Benner
Yeah, it's so funny. Yeah. The older you get, I think the more outwardly you look or that's been my experience as well. Yeah. What can I do with this? You know, as I built the Streets department platform and, you know, the Instagram followers grew and all the other platforms grew, I felt really conscious of like, okay, what is there some other work I could be doing here?

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Conrad Benner
Started doing things like petitioning step two to have the trains run more. Initially, that was run 24 seven. They ran at night for a while. COVID messed everything. I'm working with Covenant House PR, which is I believe it's still the only housing for Philadelphia youth are experiencing housing problems, homelessness, raising money with them with a public art project, lots of voter engagement.

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Conrad Benner
You know, I know that voting is not the not the only answer, but I do think it's part of like a lot of the answer is, you know, these positions hold a lot of power and just got to get the better the better person in when you can. So yeah, I've definitely the blog started this is like a photo journal archive of things I liked and it's blown up into this whole different multiverse.

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Conrad Benner
I mean, there's a podcast, there's a TED Talk, there's it's bananas. And the whole curatorial side, which I'm you mentioned the last few years, I've been really focused on curating actual projects in the public space. So I went from blogging about work in the public space to now we did 13 projects last year with streets, department walls. We call our curatorial department.

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Rob Lee
I follow that account as well.

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Conrad Benner
I mean, we're in the fashion district and we have streets on walls, murals on the ground floor here. So yeah.

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Rob Lee
So I think that's a good a good spot to kind of go into this next question, could you talk to me about the importance of recognizing where and when art and business intersect? Because, you know, we're always told, oh, those are separate things. Artists have no business savvy in their businesspeople. They're not creative. But talk about where those sort of intersect.

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Rob Lee
There's a part B to this question, but talk about where that intersects.

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Conrad Benner
Yeah. I mean, I think broadly, like we live in a capitalist society and for better or worse, so like kind of everything ends up going back to business. I mean, lots of people's hobbies turn into businesses. And I think we live in an age where, you know, it's very easy to stumble into creating your own business. Look it at you can start a podcast, you can there are so many free or cheap tools on the Internet now.

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Conrad Benner
So if you have access to the Internet and you have some some basic tools, you can create an Instagram account and promote your artwork. That way you can create a podcast. You know, the expenses there are a bit more obviously, but you know, still compared to what they would have been in the seventies or eighties or whatever, you know, think about trying to start a magazine in the eighties or any kind of publication.

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Conrad Benner
You would have had enormous expenses and a tiny reach. Yeah. And now if you get a viral TikTok video, you can get 2 million followers, you know, overnight. It's really bananas how things have changed. So these are really easy for people's hobbies and interests to turn into businesses. When it comes to the arts, though, I do think there are plenty of artists, especially like in the street art world, who do art for art's sake, you know, not necessarily ever wanting it to be a business trip.

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Conrad Benner
There are folks who do like stickers and we pay us to either have ways that they're making money otherwise and just want to do this as an outlet for their creativity. But then there are other artists who want to make it their career. And I think that again, it's maybe never been a better time to be an artist again.

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Conrad Benner
Using these tools to build a brand, quote unquote, a name for yourself. And with Streets Department, you know, it was never its intention to be my business. I started it while I worked at that gelato shop while I was at community college very quickly because I had the blog I was invited to interview for a marketing job here in Philly for this company called Quaker City Mercantile.

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Conrad Benner
And I got it. So then I was the global community manager for Hendrick's Gin. I worked at that company for four years. I learned a lot about social media, especially in those early days. This was like 2011 to 2015 and the blog was just something doing the nights and weekends. And it wasn't until my Instagram really blew up to over 100,000 followers.

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Conrad Benner
And I got, you know, this is the heyday of Instagram marketing Budweiser and Honey Grow local brands, lift international brands, reach out to me and say they want to partner on projects or on sponsored posts or this, that and the other thing that I thought, Oh, wow, I can do, it's a possibility to do streets department as a full time thing.

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Conrad Benner
And like it sounded like the direction you were headed in with you mentioning that it was the most you ever paid. And I took a big pay cut. I quit and I invested my time, full time in the sheriff's department and it's now been I left my marketing job in 2015, so it'll be eight years this year. Well, and it's been ups and downs.

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Conrad Benner
I mean, it's not easy to figure this out, you know, but, you know, I'm learning every day and the business model has changed drastically. So like when I first quit and Street's department was my, quote unquote full time thing for a while, I still had contracts on the side with I was working with this voter engagement project called Next Stop Democracy, helping to run their social media a couple of hours a week.

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Conrad Benner
And a lot of the streets and funding did come through sponsored posts. But within a few years, all of that advertising moved from Instagram to the podcast that I created. And over the last few years, most of the, you know, support that Streets Department is getting now is through the curatorial projects that we create with partners like the Fashion District here or Mural Arts, Philadelphia or whomever, and our patron.

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Conrad Benner
I mean, that's like this beautiful thing that's come out of the last few years, especially through the pandemic, is really communicating to this audience. You know, some people have been following me for 12 years now saying, like, I really like to do this work. If you like the work them doing and you're able and it's possible for you like support $5 a month here, $10 a month there, and you'll get these extra little things, too, you know.

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Conrad Benner
So it's while you just have to be and maybe life has always been this way, but I feel like the 21st century is bananas already.

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Rob Lee
Once you're able to kind of tap into it and it's hard to get to that spot I had like, you know, as I was saying earlier, like last year was really good and mainly from from this project and you know, from being honest, I was running another podcast is a, you know, goofy movie review podcast to keep my pop culture chops.

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Rob Lee
And that's going.

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Conrad Benner
To be on the NPR Pop Culture podcast.

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Rob Lee
So we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. And I think, you know, once it got there, my desire and maybe this aligns but my desire is how can I support my friends who have been around trying to do the same thing in their sort of lane? And I find that it's just like you're unique. I don't have that same sort of drive that you have, and it's just like, I don't know if it's that.

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Rob Lee
I don't really, really view it as that. It's just like it's a lot of work that goes into it. And and I'm sure you've encountered this oh, overnight success when was overnight rave? Decade and a half ago.

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Conrad Benner
I mean, three times in 12 years. But I've been blogging and writing since I was 20. You know, I'm 37 now. So I definitely you know, one of the things I wonder about blogging too is so when I started STS about me in 2011, there were a lot of blogs. Blogs were still relatively new and there were blogs.

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Conrad Benner
Are there some blogs or that hyper local, hyper focused blogs were very popular then, and few of those still exist to this day. And I really think, you know, for whatever number of reasons, some of them got bought out by bigger media publications here in Philadelphia and kind of got either rolled into them or became a subset of whatever they do.

00;18;37;23 - 00;19;01;00
Conrad Benner
But yeah, just having persistence, this is where I think being a little not putting so much weight on yourself. There were years where I didn't blog as much, weeks where maybe I'll go weeks without posting anything on Instagram. And I think it's really easy to be like, Well, I'm not doing the work enough, I'm not whatever. But I think we have to have ebbs and flows in this career, especially when it's so driven by like one person.

00;19;01;00 - 00;19;20;00
Conrad Benner
I do have a support now. I have Eric Deal who I work with. He's a contractor. He does a lot of the reporting for STS department. He helps us make our magazine and our patron and other support in other areas. But when it's so driven by like one person in the in the company, if you will, you have to have to realize that you're a person.

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Conrad Benner
So like the business and the personal and all of that kind of combines. But persistence is what I was trying to get at, you know, in 2012, particularly. So in 2012, I'd been working at Quaker City for a year, making a salary for, I think the first time. No, I made a salary at a gelato shop. It was just.

00;19;38;24 - 00;19;40;08
Rob Lee
Very European in ice cream.

00;19;40;26 - 00;19;57;19
Conrad Benner
It was I mean, I could tell you, but it was very low. I mean, we made tips do but yeah. Like salary, health care for the very first time, you know, X, Y, Z. And in 2012, I was like, oh, maybe I quit the blog. Maybe the blog was just this fun thing I did for a year or two years, and I'm going to be an adult and stay in this career.

00;19;57;28 - 00;20;13;12
Conrad Benner
But thankfully I never did. You know, I blogged less for that for a lot of that year, but I didn't give it up. And it's something I'm just so grateful for because, again, a lot of those blogs didn't stick around, I think for many reasons. But I was able to.

00;20;13;22 - 00;20;26;24
Rob Lee
I see that happening with podcasting right now. And, you know, I had this period where, again, you know, there's this sort of similarity, simpatico, right? Where this period of super depressed and I don't think I've recorded a podcast like 18 months.

00;20;27;02 - 00;20;27;14
Conrad Benner
Yeah.

00;20;27;19 - 00;20;42;26
Rob Lee
And I just remember I'd moved into my first place had a studio and no job, but moving to my first place was a very interesting period. And you know, you get the I think there are a few different colors when you move into an apartment. You have gentrification in gray or.

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Conrad Benner
Is it also gray?

00;20;46;10 - 00;21;02;12
Rob Lee
And then you have like white. I had like these white walls and, you know, I love puns and I overthink everything. I was like, one could look at this as like a padded room. Rather, I'm having this internal dialog and the white walls. And I remember I had a few friends who I trusted, that sort of mastermind team I was referring to earlier.

00;21;02;25 - 00;21;18;14
Rob Lee
They were like, You're you're Rob though, like you're the podcast guy. You're driving this whole thing because I was like, I'm not able to connect with the people I like recording with in that same way. And I don't know what the reasoning was, but I just wasn't recording anything. And I was like, Maybe I'm done with this, maybe this doesn't.

00;21;18;23 - 00;21;27;09
Rob Lee
And I had that sort of period again at that ten year mark. And, you know, I've just been doing I always joke that this is the longest and most stable relationship I've been in.

00;21;28;01 - 00;21;32;20
Conrad Benner
And I hate that you just said that because I say that about streets from it all the time, like it's the longest we've never.

00;21;32;20 - 00;21;36;03
Rob Lee
Had is this is 85. This is what it is is 1985. This is what it is.

00;21;36;19 - 00;21;53;01
Conrad Benner
And I love you just said to because I don't think we talked about enough. But yeah, like this is actually pretty recent for me too. So again, 13 curatorial projects last year, the streets, department walls. And one of the biggest challenges I have found with having Streets apartment is because it's not just a blog anymore. It's a blog, it's a podcast.

00;21;53;08 - 00;22;15;07
Conrad Benner
The social media takes so much of my time now with everything I document, you have to make a TikTok video, which I like doing. I really enjoy Tik Tok, but it's like 2 hours of work of like editing the video and then capturing it and posting it. Okay. And then the podcast on top of that, that this past year I've really let myself down with how much I, how much, how many podcasts I put out.

00;22;15;07 - 00;22;32;04
Conrad Benner
So I've actually recorded a bunch of them because it's really for me, it's really easy to like set up an interview, do research, have the interview. I love talking to people. I'm the kid in the pool, on the sidewalk. Thank you for that. But where I stumbled this year was with all that other work and just needing breaks and breaths.

00;22;33;08 - 00;22;56;06
Conrad Benner
I wasn't editing those podcasts and sending them to my editor and chopping them up and and putting them into a final product. So that's one of my goals this this winter when the cure or curatorial project has sort of slowed down, is to get back on track with that. But as disappointed as I often can let myself be, I have to remind myself like I've only gotten to the position because I've given myself.

00;22;56;07 - 00;22;56;28
Rob Lee
Give you so gracious.

00;22;56;28 - 00;23;06;11
Conrad Benner
Yes. And it's pressure I'm putting myself. No one cares. The episodes are going away when they come out, they're going to be good. And, you know.

00;23;07;01 - 00;23;23;01
Rob Lee
It is what it is. I definitely I really because I try to tell folks like, look, I have a production calendar. It's going to come out when it comes out. I have plan, I have ideas. And you know, like last year I might put out not even recorded, but I put out 300 episodes. Oh my. Yeah.

00;23;23;06 - 00;23;24;05
Conrad Benner
And what does that.

00;23;25;01 - 00;23;25;11
Rob Lee
Yeah.

00;23;25;12 - 00;23;26;10
Conrad Benner
For a week.

00;23;27;01 - 00;23;29;05
Rob Lee
Yeah. And it was pretty much every day.

00;23;29;06 - 00;23;30;03
Conrad Benner
Just the math really good.

00;23;30;14 - 00;23;37;28
Rob Lee
You have, you were very close. Very close. I was putting out one per day since March though on average.

00;23;37;28 - 00;23;38;24
Conrad Benner
Monday to Friday.

00;23;39;12 - 00;24;00;13
Rob Lee
Monday through Sunday. It was. Yeah. And okay and it was, it was, it was wild. And you know, as I looked at it and put it together like proposals for grants and funding and all of that stuff was like not like 300. Again, I was like, I want to do something that is where is this going? Like using sort of that business mindset of, right, what is the innovation here?

00;24;00;17 - 00;24;17;15
Rob Lee
I can continue doing it and I still want to do series like this where I'm able to go to a different city and have a conversation like this with you. And I think that that extends community and it's something about doing it in the city. Yeah, I wouldn't have like that's the cheesesteak story I had when someone was like, I'm running late, bro, because I had to stop to get a cheesesteak.

00;24;17;15 - 00;24;21;16
Rob Lee
I was like, What? And you know, having that sort of thing, that's sort of.

00;24;21;16 - 00;24;21;27
Conrad Benner
The way that.

00;24;22;22 - 00;24;51;05
Rob Lee
Yes, 100% and being able to do maybe 100 and be able to do sort of these pockets of how many do interviews. And Philadelphia, I'm going to do ten in New Orleans or whatever and then do sort of these live, you know, community focused free events that is still coming from this sort of brand, but it's not. I'm going to do 300 podcasts and I'm going to do a mix of events of content or what have you under this sort of brand and in that.

00;24;51;05 - 00;25;08;04
Rob Lee
And brings me to that second part. It's not even the second question for for this. You mentioned earlier some of the collaboration, some of the partnerships that presented itself. How do you suss through that? How do you figure out, like, all right, this is going to be a fit because not everybody is afraid they might be. Yeah, great opportunities.

00;25;08;04 - 00;25;15;21
Rob Lee
It might be because I look at some of the guests that bring on this person's got a lot of attention. I don't know I know if a banquet of I don't know if I want them on.

00;25;15;23 - 00;25;16;05
Conrad Benner
Yeah.

00;25;16;09 - 00;25;20;18
Rob Lee
So how do you how do you look through that?

00;25;20;18 - 00;25;46;14
Conrad Benner
I think with time you kind of get a sense of who you are and what you want to do in this world. And also with time, you get more opportunities. So it's a bit easier to say no. I'll give you one example from that Instagram influencer era, the 2014 2015, where I really was getting a lot of emails from big, big, big brands to do silly things on Instagram, post this photo, or come to our event and post about it and, you know, getting decent money for that.

00;25;47;06 - 00;26;09;12
Conrad Benner
But I still said no to a few brands. I don't know. I said no to Mountain Dew. I have this thing with soda. My dad drank Diet Pepsi like to two liters a day and I was just like, I'm anti soda. So for semi personal reasons, I said, no, I was really against the soda thing and a couple of fast food chains reached out to me and I said no as well.

00;26;10;24 - 00;26;37;07
Conrad Benner
But you know, partners like in Covenant House coming to me and saying like, we love the platform you've built and we think public art could have a role in helping to raise money for our organization. Because, you know, there are hundreds of Philadelphia youth. And youth can range in age from late teens to early twenties, where maybe they're coming out of the foster system or they're queer and trans and they're kicked out of their homes because their parents don't like that.

00;26;37;21 - 00;26;56;23
Conrad Benner
Or just simple things where you get in a fight with their dad. You ever get in a fight with your parent? Well, if you have a certain kind of parent, sometimes that means you get kicked out for a week or two. And the only thing stopping full of years from from having a home is money. Right? So we need more funding for these for these shelters and for these programs and so it was an easy yes with them.

00;26;57;22 - 00;27;17;16
Conrad Benner
I think today it's something I'm always still learning. Like I recently said yes to writing this op ed for a magazine and they want it to I guess they go to different cities and work with different writers and to get their perspective on different things happening in their city. So I initially said yes because I thought, Oh, this is a cool opportunity.

00;27;17;26 - 00;27;37;20
Conrad Benner
I won't name the magazine for reasons what you'll learn in a second, but the editor kept pushing back on what I was sending them and wanted me to go in a direction and write about something I didn't frankly know about. And then they were like, You could interview this person and that person to get this. And then I was like, Okay, this is not even what I want to write about.

00;27;37;20 - 00;27;45;27
Conrad Benner
It's not what I know about. And how am I supposed to be the expert on this? I was like, I can tell you about this and the other thing, but I can't tell you about that. So that I don't think that's going to work.

00;27;46;15 - 00;27;51;12
Rob Lee
Right about the clay people, the fish towns. I got nothing. I got nothing for you. I'm not a clay person.

00;27;51;14 - 00;28;17;05
Conrad Benner
It really bizarre and maybe that's how some other journalism works. I don't know. But I'm not, you know, a staff reporter at some magazine. I write about what I know. You know, and what I am in the world I'm in as far as like the business partner. So yeah, like we work a lot with Mill Arts, Philadelphia, they are the nation's largest public arts program and they've been a great partner for streets, department walls.

00;28;17;05 - 00;28;37;29
Conrad Benner
We work with them. We work them a number of times last year to create projects. We also work with Living Walls, Atlanta, an incredible mural arts program in Atlanta, who came up to Philly, who wanted to work with folks in Philly to do a couple of murals? Yeah, I think you just kind of sit out. It's yeah, it's it's that intangible thing of, like, what's going to work for you?

00;28;38;26 - 00;28;57;26
Conrad Benner
And I think we're having this conversation. You get a sense sometimes you say yes to things and then it doesn't work out and that's okay. Maybe best how dare you. But you know I mean like you were talking about maybe in the pre show about like even when things look like maybe it's the thing to do things will work out the way that they work out.

00;28;57;26 - 00;28;59;01
Conrad Benner
I'm being so vague, but.

00;28;59;07 - 00;29;19;17
Rob Lee
I'm like, I get, you know, where I've I've had some folks reach out to me and I'm like, I have no intention of doing this type of thing again where it's like, cool money was great, you know? I was able to do this and it's like how much, what pieces of what I'm doing and my selling off and what pieces can I like?

00;29;19;18 - 00;29;38;12
Rob Lee
Kind of get back and I think in a in a spot where you're being this sort of trusted voice, you don't want to give that up for whatever because you know, there are people who know that definitely that I think you were saying I've had instances where folks are give me here's a questions I want you to ask.

00;29;38;19 - 00;29;56;22
Rob Lee
Cool. Is there any wiggle room I understand there's some bullet points you want to get across, but you hired me. Not just you could do this if you have questions and it's like there's something that I have. Is it? Oh, you're a black guy. So we are trying to get in this market or your your gay career, what have you, you're trying to get in this market.

00;29;56;22 - 00;30;15;03
Rob Lee
It's like, what is the reasoning why these two things come together? And, you know, I find that again, with the sort of business and art thing that I find that some of the folks that I've dealt with and work with from that capacity are businesspeople, quote unquote. I'm doing part of their job. I'm the person writing the muse.

00;30;15;03 - 00;30;20;15
Rob Lee
I'm the person that's doing the follow up. I'm the person not breaking the contract. You know, I'm not going to say any names.

00;30;20;28 - 00;30;21;06
Conrad Benner
Yeah.

00;30;21;23 - 00;30;44;08
Rob Lee
And that's that's a very interesting way in it's like I think once the opportunity for like sort of consistent funding comes in or some sort of stream to keep the stuff going more so being a sort of a solo person, you know, when I'm able to bring a person in and this is again where I relate, I think what I'm able to bring an assistant in, someone to support the admin stuff.

00;30;44;11 - 00;31;00;07
Rob Lee
Having an editor is like now this is a micro economy now and it's like, you know, as an artist, as someone in that sort of lane, you're paying yourself less. You want to make sure that people that are investing their time are getting something out of it, you know, just work that's worth their time.

00;31;01;07 - 00;31;23;25
Conrad Benner
That's one of the best things I ever did was get help. It's you need it to do this kind of work and to grow whatever you're doing. You know, again, I mentioned to Airedale, but I work with him a lot. He helps produce the magazine. And yeah, thinking about I'm really grateful that streets departments are at a point now where I do have an option to turn or I do have the ability to turn options down when different projects potentially come to me.

00;31;24;13 - 00;31;43;16
Conrad Benner
I think we're really intentional about what we do. It's been really exciting again this last year to work on the curatorial side, even something like we projected with Miguel. Antonio Horn. Miguel Antonio Horn is an artist who did this incredible sculpture around the corner. We're recording it really in Center City, Philadelphia. And he was like, Hey, can we get coffee one day?

00;31;43;16 - 00;32;07;20
Conrad Benner
I would love to. This production project where we hire for artists projects to work on to our own, to my statue. And, you know, that was a fun project we did in the fall. But, you know, I can't emphasize enough how valuable it's been to have the Patreon and to have like listener support or, you know, follower support or reader support with our we have now over 100 patrons who are, you know, contributing every month with their support.

00;32;07;20 - 00;32;10;13
Conrad Benner
We were able to develop a magazine, our first magazine ever.

00;32;11;01 - 00;32;11;21
Rob Lee
Congratulations.

00;32;11;21 - 00;32;34;23
Conrad Benner
And so now we do an annual magazine that's sort of a recap of the previous year by the time this comes out, it should be available for purchase. You just go to low income bio. We also do an annual booklet. So the magazine comes out every winter, every January, and the booklet comes out every June, and the booklet offers insight into a handful of neighborhoods from the perspective of Streets Apartment, which is art, architecture and public space.

00;32;34;23 - 00;32;50;19
Conrad Benner
So we look at some public parks that are really cool, obviously street art murals, all that kind of stuff, but also cool, independent, artsy shops. That's all because of the support we have directly from folks. So the magazine is not full of ads. You know, it could be double the size if we had ads in it, but it's not.

00;32;50;19 - 00;33;07;06
Conrad Benner
It's just the content. And I really like doing that. So I hope to grow that just as much as I grow this curatorial stuff. There's been less and less direct advertising, which has been really fun. So again, yeah, most of that support coming through these curatorial projects and to support directly from our followers.

00;33;07;16 - 00;33;40;28
Rob Lee
That's wonderful. So I want to, I want to shift into I have this one question that I'm going to shift into some of the Philly stuff, and then we get to Rapidfire. So if there's one question in terms of like a journey that a creative takes that I think non creatives just don't quite get is like, you know, and I think we've both kind of been talking about that a bit of like this is hard, takes a lot of time and all of the different stuff, but what is that one thing that you would share from your vantage point that you think a lot of people just won't get in in to?

00;33;40;28 - 00;33;53;09
Rob Lee
They kind of go after it in that way, like, you know what, I'm going to dare to be creative. I'm going to dare to put my time and energy and sweat or whatever into this sort of lame.

00;33;53;09 - 00;34;13;29
Conrad Benner
That's it. Yeah. I appreciate you emailing me the questions ahead of time. And this is the one I kept stumbling on. I don't know my immediate thought. Maybe it's first thought. Best thought was like I think with a lot of this creative work that we do, we're able to do it because it is we're driven by these forces that are just outside of oftentimes like economics.

00;34;13;29 - 00;34;35;00
Conrad Benner
Yeah. So they're personal or they're creative or they're there's something in us that's pushing in us, in this direction. And so with a lot of folks, I imagine, you know, you go to your job, you do your job, maybe you like it even, right? But your main goal is to have a good job and to, you know, raise enough money to support yourself and your family, let's say.

00;34;36;09 - 00;34;58;10
Conrad Benner
And so potentially in that world, it's really easy to shut it off at night. And when you work, when you're not working. So I think one thing that I think really the folks who live that sort of life could think about the creative world is that we're always thinking about it. We're always working. I just I had this client reach out to me for a potential project and they were like, What would the hours for this be?

00;34;58;10 - 00;35;16;02
Conrad Benner
I'm like, I don't know how the hours with is. I'd have to check seconds because I'm like in the shower thinking about it and then on a walk to the grocery store. And I'm thinking about it and I'm taking, you know, we're always on with this and it's not a good or a bad thing. You know, I think obviously we need rest and we need Sank Sanctuary.

00;35;16;02 - 00;35;32;28
Conrad Benner
What's sort of like it's like I just listen to this podcast about sabbaticals, you know, we need rest and community and all that kind of stuff. But in this creative world where we're pushed by a force that's outside of economics and, you know, with economics, you can, oh, I'm going to earn this. Like my time clock ended. I'm going to go home and shut it off.

00;35;33;12 - 00;35;39;23
Conrad Benner
We're always on. And I think you have compassion for your creative friends that, you know, they might not text you back immediately.

00;35;41;16 - 00;35;41;27
Rob Lee
Yeah.

00;35;42;16 - 00;35;46;02
Conrad Benner
They might need you to pull them out of that. Say, hey, look, we're going down this or come down.

00;35;46;07 - 00;35;56;05
Rob Lee
I had this conversation with someone earlier. The guest I had on earlier, I was like, I'm going to look like a dad for a second because I was like, I mean, I was sleepy and she's like, 4 hours. I was like.

00;35;56;18 - 00;35;57;29
Conrad Benner
That is not entirely.

00;35;58;00 - 00;36;01;27
Rob Lee
The look I gave her. I felt like old man Rob, but I was like, Oh shit, I am a daddy.

00;36;01;27 - 00;36;06;12
Conrad Benner
I'm really trying to sleep more. Like, there's so many things that are learning that are connected to sleep, everything.

00;36;06;19 - 00;36;30;13
Rob Lee
One, 2%. So I got to fully questions I want to hit you with real quick and then I got these rapid fire ones. So I've been really interested in this concept of home. Hmm. So wherever you go, wherever you are. No. How do you bring this sort of concept of home? Whenever you like, travel, whenever you go somewhere like I'm obnoxiously Baltimore when I go to different cities.

00;36;30;13 - 00;36;45;01
Rob Lee
Mm. I don't wear a hat sometimes because I found it as a marker to get robbed. Like, I'm not stupid enough and, but, you know, I walk around and, you know, I mean, I'm from Baltimore. I have no problem with saying that. And I mention it and I say too weirdly, I get a lot of hot sauce on my chicken.

00;36;45;03 - 00;36;49;20
Rob Lee
It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. So how do you bring Philly with you whenever you travel?

00;36;50;12 - 00;37;06;06
Conrad Benner
I like it. I love this question so much. No one's ever asked me this. It's such a weird, a beautiful question. And I think my first thought was the obvious, which is so Philadelphia is the Mural Capital World. It's a self-designated name, but whatever in Wikipedia. So it is what it is.

00;37;07;22 - 00;37;08;29
Rob Lee
I found it on Wikipedia. It's fine.

00;37;10;11 - 00;37;30;28
Conrad Benner
And but you know, the truth to that is that whenever like Condé Nast Traveler or CNN comes here, they always talk about our murals. We have some 5000 murals, some 1500 works of monuments and artwork. We have art kind of everywhere here. So I think that's a big reason why I started the blog. It's always been a part of my life and the blog is investigating that, right?

00;37;30;28 - 00;37;48;00
Conrad Benner
Like do we create the public art that we do and who are the creators and what are the forces that it's being that allow it to be created, whether it's noncommissioned work, street art or commissioned work murals in public art? It's a really fun thing to think about because our public space is so important. We know what's around us affects us.

00;37;48;01 - 00;38;08;17
Conrad Benner
We mentioned it before about like, you know, the five people you're around the most and been influencing in ways you can't even understand. And our public space does that just as much. So I would love if there was more conversation and thought around our public space being deliberative about, you know, what our future public space looks like and thinking about how our public space constantly can better support us in our communities.

00;38;08;17 - 00;38;20;06
Conrad Benner
But so when I go and I travel, I look at the public art, I try to look at stickers, I try to look at street art, and I try to figure out what's going on. That always reminds me of a home. And I think, Oh, that artist is really interesting. Or It reminds me of this artist in Philly.

00;38;20;06 - 00;38;39;23
Conrad Benner
Yeah. So that's kind of the obvious answer to me, but I really value traveling. You know, I grew up in a family where we did. Luckily, my mom had a really good year. She worked at a bank. We went to Disney World once, but we didn't travel a lot. We went to the Jersey Shore. My mom went to Canada once, but, you know, my dad only flew once in his whole life.

00;38;39;23 - 00;39;05;07
Conrad Benner
I still have never left the country. I'm doing it this year for the first time, going to Mexico City for a friend's wedding, but also going to stay another week and then be in Mexico City. So but I have traveled around a lot in the U.S. So once, you know, I got into the Quaker City Mercantile and like the good money coming in, I tried to do one day to be here and I've been able to do that with the exception of the pandemic year for the last ten years or so, whatever.

00;39;05;07 - 00;39;20;23
Conrad Benner
How long? So traveling is so important. I'm excited to leave the country for the first time and I'm excited to see how that influences me and my career and my work with street swimming. But it travels really important and always finding home in that, you know, street art will always remind me of Philly public are always moving to Philly because I think we do a really good job of that.

00;39;21;07 - 00;39;38;23
Rob Lee
Thank you. Thank you for those insights. And I travel the same way. I've only been in the Bahamas once, and that's when I was just being a hot boy. Yeah, it is very is very a lot of nerves. I'm not a shirt off guy. And I was like, I'm in another country. I'm drinking like zero and like unimproved alcohol is just the root off of like.

00;39;38;26 - 00;39;39;01
Rob Lee
Huh.

00;39;39;05 - 00;39;49;17
Conrad Benner
Well, that's why I'm just saying how, like, your, your environment affects you. Like, yeah, like I, I like I was in, like, New Mexico and I like, bought clothes I still have never worn again, but I wore them there. I'm like, I'm this person.

00;39;50;01 - 00;40;07;16
Rob Lee
You know? I had family. I had family in New Mexico. My brother since moved. But I think it was one of the first times I went down there. I was feeling very very into my myself and I may have been doing a little something. And there was a police car rolling around. I was I am from Baltimore. I hate it.

00;40;07;16 - 00;40;17;13
Rob Lee
And then going to an A Wendy's, I got super sick the next day and it was like can't ride was they had too much to kill. I was like, yeah, exactly. That's exactly what I did.

00;40;17;13 - 00;40;20;03
Conrad Benner
Wendy's, whatever they have the one just killing me.

00;40;20;13 - 00;40;24;15
Rob Lee
I think it was like maybe the chicken version of the baconator. I was like, mistakes were made.

00;40;25;04 - 00;40;26;13
Conrad Benner
Where in New Mexico did you go?

00;40;26;16 - 00;40;27;10
Rob Lee
Clovis.

00;40;27;10 - 00;40;28;06
Conrad Benner
Oh, have you been there?

00;40;28;07 - 00;40;31;19
Rob Lee
Yeah, Clovis is right outside of Lubbock, Texas is like a 90 mile drive.

00;40;32;04 - 00;40;39;10
Conrad Benner
Isn't the difference between Texas and New Mexico astounding? You're like, that's what local government does. When you cross the border, you're like, wow, this.

00;40;39;10 - 00;40;40;08
Rob Lee
Is we've got to take.

00;40;40;08 - 00;40;40;12
Conrad Benner
It.

00;40;40;21 - 00;40;46;17
Rob Lee
Yeah. Bye bye. Bye. Air Force by helicopter. Everyone was speeding to get that.

00;40;46;24 - 00;41;05;00
Conrad Benner
A weird point I'm going to get to back. But like we are facing our 2023 mayoral municipal elections vote y'all because I know it can feel really I know it can feel like a lot of politicians don't do enough for us. And you obviously can make that argument. But when you get the right people in place and the right things work out, you know, things can be really good.

00;41;05;22 - 00;41;22;22
Conrad Benner
I never noticed as much as we were driving, we were on a little road trip from New Mexico to Texas as soon as we crossed the border, the the land itself was different. And you realize, oh, because there's different policies here that don't protect the land. And all of a sudden there's just industry and there's smokestacks and pollution and the roads were crappy.

00;41;22;24 - 00;41;34;07
Conrad Benner
And I'm like, this is all the decision of the local government. It was never so clear to me as that exact point. So vote and just vote for the best person. You know, we're never going to have a saint as a as a politician.

00;41;34;13 - 00;41;39;07
Rob Lee
So no utopia, no central point. And yeah, you know, I think reframe it.

00;41;39;07 - 00;41;40;29
Conrad Benner
And run for office. Sorry, too. Yes.

00;41;41;04 - 00;41;57;23
Rob Lee
And I think sometimes reframe and I was like, we do this thing where, you know, we were playing with this idea and we will probably talk off Mike about this. But, you know, this this concept of, you know, some of the words we use, I think that we've gotten really weird with our words over the last 20 years or so, and they kind of lose some of their meaning.

00;41;58;09 - 00;42;12;01
Rob Lee
And I was like, say things that make sense. Like if you're going to someone and saying, hey, we got these this monkeypox, the sake of argument, I was like, That sounds like a cartoon character. I'd say, just say, Yo, this is the thing that makes your face fall off. Yeah, that's something that's going to get someone's attention.

00;42;12;07 - 00;42;13;15
Conrad Benner
For a month. Yeah, yeah.

00;42;13;15 - 00;42;28;24
Rob Lee
You're going to be like a crunch bar. Yeah. And, you know, some people like sugar, but some people don't. But yeah, I think being able to communicate things in a way to get that sort of point across and not kind of soft pedaling it. And it's like, look, you want people in there that have your ideas in mind.

00;42;29;03 - 00;42;42;10
Rob Lee
You know, the whole notion of voting for a lesser evil, you know, that's like why we vote for evil. That's literally where my mindset goes. But I think the way that you put it was so like, well done. I think that's more aligned to what I value.

00;42;42;10 - 00;42;58;04
Conrad Benner
Yeah. And my of a few years ago told me this and I'll never forget it she said vote for your better vote for the better opponent. Right. Like even if you think all these politicians are bad and maybe a lot of them are, vote for the better opponent. Someone's going to be in this position of power. Who can you win the most fights against?

00;42;58;05 - 00;42;58;15
Conrad Benner
Yeah.

00;42;59;07 - 00;43;04;12
Rob Lee
So I think I think that would be the spot where we actually wrap and go into these fire questions. And now you have.

00;43;04;18 - 00;43;05;28
Conrad Benner
To destroy the other failing question.

00;43;06;03 - 00;43;16;25
Rob Lee
No, no, no. I'm going to work it in there no other way because I am a professional. So here's the I'm the first one I got for you. I'm glad I changed it to you, too, by the way.

00;43;17;04 - 00;43;18;19
Conrad Benner
How faster I have to give my response.

00;43;20;07 - 00;43;23;07
Rob Lee
This fast as you think you can. Okay.

00;43;23;07 - 00;43;23;22
Conrad Benner
No pressure.

00;43;23;25 - 00;43;25;11
Rob Lee
What was the last thing you searched on YouTube?

00;43;26;11 - 00;43;46;23
Conrad Benner
I when I eat, I usually make breakfast at home. But when I do eat breakfast in my studio park, I will watch this. I don't know the Philip DeFranco show probably, or oh my God, I will search. There's a guy named Per Diem, I think, on YouTube and he reviews. This is like The Bachelor and Survivor and like Big Brother, like all those trash reality shows.

00;43;46;23 - 00;43;49;18
Conrad Benner
No offense. I mean, I'm obviously watching them. So something like that. Yeah.

00;43;50;20 - 00;43;52;15
Rob Lee
How many hours of sleep do you get?

00;43;52;15 - 00;43;56;09
Conrad Benner
I really try for seven or eight and I usually get it.

00;43;57;07 - 00;44;00;29
Rob Lee
I've been getting it recently. I've been like I woke up in the middle, I woke up at 3 a.m., right?

00;44;00;29 - 00;44;01;09
Conrad Benner
Yeah.

00;44;01;10 - 00;44;03;22
Rob Lee
I like at the middle of the night.

00;44;03;23 - 00;44;04;24
Conrad Benner
It's the spirits, right? I mean.

00;44;05;15 - 00;44;28;07
Rob Lee
That's like, no, I woke up and I was like, I got to write comments, questions. I the new put some new ones in there. So like you said, I don't know how to charge you guys for this. So, so, so 7 to 8 that's in the same zone as me. And if you know this, if you had to answer this really quickly, the first artist that comes to mind when asked is What was an artist that made you fall in love with art?

00;44;28;07 - 00;44;29;20
Conrad Benner
Oh, wow. That's so.

00;44;29;20 - 00;44;31;14
Rob Lee
I know. But it is a rapid fire one.

00;44;31;19 - 00;44;53;27
Conrad Benner
Okay. I mean, when I was really young, I had never seen I really. It's Banksy. I will just say it. I hate it, but okay. I never really went to museums or anything and getting those books about anything. Like seeing that he was like doing really challenging, complicated things. Some of this remind you this is like in the early 2000 in my adult career, the streets department, there was an artist about ten years ago named Ish.

00;44;53;27 - 00;45;09;29
Conrad Benner
Nancy did yarn bombing. It was the first time I ever saw yarn bombing in real life, and she was doing really interesting things, like wrapping the seats on the L as a conversation around how art can travel through neighborhoods is anything so. But I mean, my whole career is I mean, the blog doesn't have an artist on it that I'm not absolutely obsessed with.

00;45;09;29 - 00;45;19;05
Conrad Benner
I mean, that's the great thing about having a non ad driven blog. I don't have to have ten articles a week, you know, I post when I want to post and I post about things I like. So yeah.

00;45;20;01 - 00;45;29;17
Rob Lee
You're driving. It's the it's almost like when people tell me like, you know, you don't curating, right? I was like, no, I'm not. You absolutely are. Yeah. Favorite color combination.

00;45;30;03 - 00;45;35;24
Conrad Benner
Well, I love the color green and purple. It's very New Orleans was like, oh, well, it was when you influenced me.

00;45;35;26 - 00;45;37;10
Rob Lee
Oh, hi, my that.

00;45;37;12 - 00;45;39;15
Conrad Benner
Oh, my God, we're all little bees buzzing around.

00;45;40;20 - 00;45;43;03
Rob Lee
Now, let's talk about pretzels.

00;45;43;25 - 00;45;48;23
Conrad Benner
Please. I was hoping you we would finally get to this, and I'm actually stunned it took that long.

00;45;49;28 - 00;45;55;07
Rob Lee
Okay, what do you how do you how do you, like, impress? I know how to ask that question. I've not had a pretzel up here.

00;45;55;18 - 00;46;14;29
Conrad Benner
So. But a really good. And they're not that like big round one. They're like the skinny ones you get. Well, pretzels are just a part of life up here, or at least in my life. So when I was in but when I was in Catholic school as a kid, pretzels, your parents would put like a couple of dollars in a little envelope and you'd get a chocolate milk and a pretzels, a snack, you know, all through like first, second, third, fourth grade.

00;46;16;15 - 00;46;32;06
Conrad Benner
As a kid, I want as much that as possible. But as a 37 year old with high blood pressure. So I know it's like it's a family thing. I know as much as the thought office I can and just put spicy mustard on.

00;46;32;13 - 00;46;32;29
Rob Lee
Okay.

00;46;32;29 - 00;46;54;09
Conrad Benner
Okay. But when I when in my early twenties, it's going to be another era. In my early twenties there was a pretzel factory on Washington Avenue and my friends and I, we all lived in like the South Shore area just when I was like 21, 22. And if you were at the bar until it closed, you could stay up just a little bit longer and then go to the pretzel place while they're being made.

00;46;54;23 - 00;47;09;26
Conrad Benner
And we would bake over there. And when they're freshly made, they literally melt your mouth and you're a little maybe drunk. So I'm having like three and I would get the cheese dip. I don't know what it was. I know if it was Cheez Whiz and what not, but it was liquidy and I dipped it. I mean, it's probably why I have high blood pressure, but.

00;47;09;27 - 00;47;10;05
Conrad Benner
No.

00;47;11;05 - 00;47;19;10
Rob Lee
No, the is funny. Like, you didn't see that question. But that literally is how I ask the question. Yeah. Is it plain? Is it mustard, is it cheese?

00;47;19;10 - 00;47;29;12
Conrad Benner
It's in my current era. It's not all the sort of maybe I'll leave like two little flakes and then spicy about mustard.

00;47;29;12 - 00;47;48;00
Rob Lee
I'm going to say the funny as well for lab you. That's really funny. If there was one spot that you would shout out in terms of a secret and I know that's pretty much a lot of what you're doing in your work, but hidden gems secret spot in Philly like one that you like. You know if you come up here, you have like, you know, an extra day or something a couple of hours.

00;47;48;00 - 00;47;49;00
Rob Lee
You should check this place out.

00;47;49;23 - 00;48;07;11
Conrad Benner
Okay. If you're coming to Philly for our history, I would say with a few friends, go zigzag through a bunch of the alleys in like Old City and society hill. The alleys are just that's where a lot of the old architecture is. I don't know if a lot of people know this, but we are the only World Heritage City in the United States of America.

00;48;07;11 - 00;48;26;03
Conrad Benner
And that just means that we have a significant amount of historic architecture. That's in part because we didn't have a lot of funding. You know, Boston in New York tore down a lot of their old architecture and built new things. We just knew that because we didn't have that sort of money coming to the city, see a zigzag through the neighborhood and society.

00;48;26;03 - 00;48;47;11
Conrad Benner
Hill and Old City. There are all these really beautiful alleys. A lot of them are cobblestoned. And if you're coming for the public art and street art, I mean, there are a lot of neighborhoods you can zigzag through probably the neighborhood has the most concentration of murals, like around 13th Street, Sansom Street, 11th 12th. There's a lot of really cool murals, old and older and newer.

00;48;47;11 - 00;48;47;19
Conrad Benner
Yeah.

00;48;48;14 - 00;49;01;00
Rob Lee
Okay, here's the last one to thank you. I think on my route from the train station, I'm definitely passing through. I think a lot of rainbow colored streets over here. And so as the streets. Yeah. What do you have for breakfast?

00;49;01;19 - 00;49;25;23
Conrad Benner
Great question. I didn't know this was coming up. Oh, I don't know how to prepare. It's a little pre-show joke I had, so I make omelets every morning and I usually have a little egg mcmuffins. No, not eggs. And what are they called? Oh, English bagels. Well, English muffins. Yeah, it's a agricole. Thank you. Did English muffins on the side but they get the whole wheat ones.

00;49;25;23 - 00;49;43;11
Conrad Benner
Okay. I'm 37. Um, but I ran out of them. I forgot to get them. So I just had an omelet say. And what I put my omelets varies on the day and what I have in my fridge. But today it was and you're gonna think it's crazy but frozen peas I eat them out and roasted peppers.

00;49;44;06 - 00;49;45;06
Rob Lee
It sounds good actually.

00;49;45;06 - 00;49;56;18
Conrad Benner
It was really good. The peas. I've had this conversation. So many people in the omelet, if you cook them at the right way, like you don't overcook them. They do these little pops, and it's like it's a little bit of sweetness in your omelet. It's very good.

00;49;56;18 - 00;49;57;12
Rob Lee
So sandwiches.

00;49;57;28 - 00;50;06;08
Conrad Benner
Oh, I thought that was a given. Of course. Yeah. And today I only had Swiss. I would prefer something sharper, like a cheddar, but I only had such an eye. So such an average citizen.

00;50;06;08 - 00;50;19;19
Rob Lee
This is pretty much done with the real questions, but I'm sure like the the Italian homies, they would hate me because I enjoy like my Italian cold cut grinder, hoagie, whatever people call me with Swiss cheese.

00;50;19;27 - 00;50;21;06
Conrad Benner
Oh, wow. So fancy.

00;50;21;09 - 00;50;21;12
Rob Lee
Like.

00;50;21;22 - 00;50;33;26
Conrad Benner
Or something. You know what? To this day, if I. Well, I'm vegetarian, so I'll get a cheese hoagie. It usually uses lots of veggies in the middle. I still get American cheese. I like American cheese. I don't know what it is, honestly. I just know it's soft and I don't know.

00;50;34;24 - 00;50;57;25
Rob Lee
So there you have it, folks. That's how we're going to end. That's how we're going to end know we're going to end on the cheesy is no possible way to to 37 year olds just just talking cheese with or without I don't know. So what I want to thank you for coming onto this podcast and indulging and sharing and chopping it out with me and to I want to encourage and invite you to share with the folks.

00;50;57;25 - 00;51;04;04
Rob Lee
This is a shameless plug portion telephones where you can check you out, check out Street Department, all of that great stuff. The floor is yours.

00;51;04;07 - 00;51;12;22
Conrad Benner
Well, I really appreciate you having me on and I'll have you on my podcast maybe in a year we'll build some time in between. So Streets, apartment, you can follow me on all the social media sites.

00;51;15;25 - 00;51;16;09
Speaker 4
State.

00;51;18;20 - 00;51;40;05
Conrad Benner
Streets DVD like John screwing this for me streets DVD like short for department on all this social media is including tik tok I make the tik tok is really interesting I would say go follow me there, especially if you have a tik tok because there's a lot of fun things on there. And the biggest thing coming out right now is our second annual Streets of magazine.

00;51;40;16 - 00;51;56;15
Conrad Benner
We've been doing this for two years now. We hope to make it an annual magazine. It's created initially with our patrons support so they get theirs first. They already have them. But if you're not a patron member of ours, you can purchase it on our big cartel, which will be by the time this is live. So yeah. Lincoln bio deputy short for department.

00;51;57;16 - 00;52;19;10
Rob Lee
So there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Conrad better for coming on to the podcast and chopping it out with me. And I'm Rob Lee and there's art, culture, street D like department and around your neck of the woods you just got to look for it.