SCÈNE 18. Jake Bell, Creative Strategist and Writer, Who Do You Know?
Neon wilderness: On Tony Soprano's comfortably numb revelation at Red Rock Canyon.
You’re reading edition number 18 of Mise-En-Scène. This month’s guest curator is
, the founder and writer of the buzzy Substack , which digs into trends and disruptions in culture and how they inform the brand storytelling we’re absorbing daily. To date, Bell has published candid interviews with brand marketers and creative directors who are shaping the direction of various industries, from CPG foods to hospitality. I recommend you check out recent chats with Praize’s on effective affiliate PR, baker on crafting New York City’s most-coveted indie cakes, and bagel boss Joey Scalabrino on scaling the great taste and brand allure of Apollo Bagels.Who Do You Know? is clear-eyed at cutting to the meat of what makes brand-building interesting—and why certain brands flop!—because Bell is an incisive creative strategist and forecaster himself. He works in marketing and growth for Rilla, a New York City-based AI startup. He generously sent in his Mise-En-Scène dispatch while on-ramping the company’s first-ever conference in Las Vegas.
And Sin City is having a bit of a moment, isn’t it? Aside from, or perhaps in reaction to, the mainstream embrace of The Sphere, the Formula 1 racing foothold, and recent splashy residencies—Adele, Usher, Bruno Mars—I’ve clocked a newfound wistfulness for the Las Vegas of yore. Gia Coppola’s recent love letter to ‘70s-era backstage dramas, The Last Showgirl, stars a luminous Pamela Anderson as Shelly, a performer contemplating her future after she learns her long-running show, Le Razzle Dazzle, one of the remaining glitzy revues of its kind, is forced to take its final bow. Watching the film, I was reminded both of Gia’s grandpa Francis’s own Vegas fable, One from the Heart (1981), and her cousin Nicolas Cage’s plaintive performance in Leaving Las Vegas (1995). Yesterday’s Rat Pack evolved into Leo DiCaprio-led Wolf Packs of the early aughts and their modern-day counterparts, the cryptocrats commanding tables at Carbone and Mother Wolf. But still, we hold on to Vegas’s romantic afterglow. We have Martin Scorsese’s story about Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner to look forward to (DiCaprio is playing Ol’ Blue Eyes, natch), and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until Sabrina Carpenter stages an homage to her spiritual grandmothers, vivacious pixies Ann-Margret and Joey Heatherton, at the Dolby Live.
If Las Vegas is the world’s Lost and Found and Lost Again, Bell makes an apt selection in spotlighting Tony Soprano’s peyote-induced awakening from the final season of The Sopranos, in the Alan Taylor-helmed episode “Kennedy and Heidi.” Up ahead, Jake Bell on Tony’s moment of enlightenment, as well as his full list of current cultural favorites in JAKE BELL RECOMMENDS (his take on Buddakan is brave and correct).
CREATIVE STRATEGIST AND WHO DO YOU KNOW? WRITER JAKE BELL ON TONY SOPRANO’S DESERT AWAKENING IN THE SOPRANOS EPISODE “KENNEDY AND HEIDI,” 2007
As I write this, I’m in a hotel room in Las Vegas. The team at Rilla and I are about to have our first conference. Over 700+ people are coming for a three-day celebration of sales, sports, and technology. Planning this from the beginning has been an insane experience. Figuring out how to get people to come and then putting on a world-class experience has been a totally net-new thing for me and one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
At night, I’ve been watching The Sopranos. I can’t get the scene from “Kennedy and Heidi” where Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) drives out into the desert high on peyote to see the sunrise [over Red Rock Canyon] out of my head. That feeling of leaving the New York metro area and venturing into the desert for a life-changing experience is big for me right now. The turmoil in Tony’s life—he literally kills his former heir-apparent (Michael Imperioli) earlier in the episode—juxtaposed with the aimless feeling of being in Las Vegas, capped by the moment of discovery and enlightenment at the end of this one-off adventure are a massive vibe.
JAKE BELL RECOMMENDS
Lemaire Twisted Self-Belt Pants.
Jake says: I picked these up at my favorite store in NYC, Ven. Space, a few weeks back. While the price tag was hefty ($800), I’ve been wearing them non-stop. They’re huge, and the tailoring is on point.Aēsop Marrakech Intense Parfum.
Jake says: My girlfriend got me the roll-on Marrakech parfum from Aēsop so that I could bring it anywhere. It’s my winter scent; the fragrance is deep and dark. It’s a good juxtaposition against the freezing cold New York weather.
Green juice.
Jake says: I don’t like eating after I work out in the morning, but green juice has been my savior in not passing out.Buddakan NYC.
Jake says: I am done eating at small-plate restaurants on the Lower East Side. I only have one or two nights a week I can eat out at a good restaurant. I’m not wasting the chance. Buddakan [in the Meatpacking District] is fun, dark, and the food is good. Leaning into the basic has never felt so blissful. (Nat’s note: For Who Do You Know?, Jake recently wrote an Op-Ed in support of ‘basic-maxxxing’ his culinary outings. In an era when restaurants have gotten needlessly precious, I find his approach refreshing!)Steve Jobs’s 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech.
Jake says: When you do big things, you need inspiration. My biggest is Steve Jobs. His Stanford commencement speech, and also his line “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you,” reminds me that I can do anything.
That’s all for this month’s edition of Mise-En-Scène! This time, what happens in Vegas doesn’t have to stay there: subscribe to Jake Bell’s Substack
and follow him on Instagram for tasteful glimpses into the life of a cosmopolitan wiz kid.You can watch the entirety of The Sopranos (1999-2007) on HBO Max. If you’d like to dig deeper, read Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos, co-authored by the show’s actors Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa with Philip Lerman.
If you have rants or raves about Mise-En-Scène, or ideas about what or who you’d like to see featured next, write me in the comments or DM me on Instagram.
See you next month!
also HIGHLY recommend Alan Sepinwall & Matt Zoller Seitz's "The Soprano Sessions," which I read alongside the show as I watched.