Category: Life

ART VS POLITICAL NONSENSE

A blog is a wonderful time capsule, for both the good and the bad. This from a recent email newsletter from the German band Elder:

Unfortunately, the timing for this release coincides with the change in tariff policies of the US government. Our (Stickman, based in Germany) uses a number of services to ensure the cheapest possible worldwide shipping, but all of them are currently not servicing the US while they re-tool themselves to handle the current situation.

As such, before these tariffs went into effect we only managed to get 100 copies of the EP into the US! If you are in the States and want to get your hands on one, you will need to order either via Armageddon Shop or Echodelic, both of which have only 50 copies.

We know that techincally tariffs shouldn’t affect vinyl as it falls under the banner of “informational materials”. Our shipping partners are not currently servicing the US and our hands are tied. Apologies for that.

Hope to look back on this post five years from now and shake my head at the current state of political affairs.

And holy heck, that album art is soooo good.

NOT WHY BUT WHAT?

Great reflection from Devon Yanko:

I have been asking myself the wrong question: Why? Why was this the wrong question for me? Because you don’t need to make meaning out of every feeling. I have become so accustomed to working on myself that self-interrogation has become second nature. And it is not always the right tool. Introspecting on every single thing does not in fact create more insight. I kept trying to fix the past through understanding it and ensure that I would be safe in the future. But it doesn’t work that way. Making meaning doesn’t inoculate you against future failures.

The better question to ask myself is: What? What am I feeling? What do I need right now? What am I excited about? What do I want to do? If I follow those questions with a Why? I feel immediately defensive and shutdown. I can feel my chest tighten. I have spent my life justifying and explaining myself, and I have worked so hard to not feel like I have to. I have worked so hard to trust myself and my deep inner knowing. I have asked enough “why” in therapy and self-work that it is no longer the right question for me.

That part, “you don’t need to make meaning out of every feeling.”

I actually heard Alex Hormozi talk about that, too. Fuck the feeling, it is what it is, sort of onto the next.

Okay, maybe I’m paraphrasing and off topic, but I like where Devon takes it.

A GOOD TIRED

I’ve been on a lot of Zoom calls this week with my Escape Pod offering via Social Media Escape Club.

I remember being exhausted from scrolling through multiple social media channels everyday. Twitter. Instagram. LinkedIn. Back to Twitter. Over and over, throughout the day.

I would spend hours every day posting, replying, sharing, DMing, ping ping ping. All day long.

Now I spend hours every week with people who are engaged, filled with the energy of making good work.

CHEAP SHIRTS

Like most people, I’ve got a lot of shirts. Many fit better than others. Different cuts. Different weights.

I’ve since been checking out the tags of the shirts I like and ordering blanks from Blank Shirts.

I just ordered three shirts that cost me less than $15 (before shipping). I bought five last year (including a long sleeve) and with shipping it wasn’t even $50.

I still love my logo “graphic tees,” and the companies and bands that I support with my purchase. But sometimes I want to go outside without making any statement, or repping any brand.

ENJOY THE BARRYVILLE CAMEL

Noah Kalina investigated the Barryville Camel for Radio Catskill.

“The current Congress just slashed $170K from (the Radio Catskill) budget, so your support will help fill in the gap. These small-town stations are vital to the local community and culture.”

Read so much more (and watch Noah’s excellent video) here.

CBS ENDS THE LATE SHOW

Update 7/23/2025: Oh, damn. I didn’t realize the shitty backstory to all of this.

CBS is ending The Late Show, hosted by Stephen Colbert. Not replacing Colbert, but ending the show.

In this clip, Colbert mentions how 200 people work on the show. TWO HUNDRED.

I had to look it up, but The Late Show started in 1993 with David Letterman.

I can only imagine that it costs a lot of money to run a show like that in Manhattan, week in and week out.

THERE’S ANOTHER WAY

“But what if there’s another way? We’re clearly starving for something different online. A 19-minute ambient song with a static image of a whale has 3.1M views on YouTube – people choosing to spend nearly 20 minutes with literally nothing happening while the rest of the platform optimises for peak stimulation. This is evidence of a deep hunger for ‘digital quiet’. Online spaces that offer contemplation instead of consumption.”

This from “The Restaurant with No Music” by Simon James French.

He also linked to this Google Doc called ‘Ambient-ish music to do work to,’ with all sorts of links to playlists and albums and.. Plants.fm??

That’s right – there’s a device you can buy called Plant Wave.

“PlantWave measures biological changes within plants, graphs them as a wave and translates the wave into pitch.

With PlantWave, every single note you hear is a real-time expression of a shift in a plant. The more active a plant is at any particular moment, the more notes you’ll hear. When a plant is less active, it will often drone or even stop producing notes.”

I literally just want to hook one of these up to a plant next to a creek, set up my camera, and take a nap for an hour.

THE HEAT BROKE

We had a thunderstorm and then the temp dropped 20 degrees. We could finally turn off the AC units and open the windows. Breath the slightly less hot air. We got a nice sunset, too. Some nice clouds out there, being soft and calm.