here’s the next batch of four things:
music:
Cracked Rear View by Hootie and the Blowfish. I can hear you judging. But I don’t care. I love this album. Every song is great. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time (go ahead, fact check me). At least four songs from this record were played every 12 minutes on almost all Top 40 Radio Stations in the country, enough to make you dry heave.
I get it.
But we like what we like.
When I was eleven years old and learning to play the drums, this was the first album which I could play all the way through, no stopping. The sentimental value of it is just as big and bright as the songwriting and the rock-pop greatness. I can still sing every lyric. It’s the sonic equivalent of comfort food.
article:
Letter to my Younger Self by Ray Allen. This is an inspiring letter. Just as the title suggests, basketball great Ray Allen writes and reflects on his life and what it took to get where he got. I've texted this to a dozen people. The lessons are perennial, not glamorous, and true. This is a great read for everyone, but especially for teens and young adults who are just beginning their adult lives.
more music:
Ingenue (Piano version)- Thom Yorke. There is something about when an artist covers themself. They take what they’ve recorded before and they take colors out of it, remove parts and re-color it. It’s the same song… isn’t it? I would argue that it’s not. A song or an idea can change modes and it no longer resides in the same reality. A hyperlink to a far-removed surreality. That’s what Yorke has done with this version of this song. I’ve probably watched this video 100 times. I like it better than the original, recorded with his other (other, other, other) band Atoms for Peace.
useful tool:
Hemmingway editor. This is an online writing editor. It’s free. It helps people like me who tend to ramble on in a mindless prattle. You can paste your online writing into it and just like your 8th grade writing teacher, it (may) help you to be a better writer. I use it often and it helps me to realize that I am not as clever a writer as I’d like to be. The great humble-izer.
That’s all from this go ‘round of four things.
Stay cool, be kind.
-Tyler