Month: May 2021

Five Things This Week: 2021, Week 21

The Linda Lindas Are More Than Just a Viral Punk Band
Pitchfork
If you don’t know who or what the title above is referring to, just stop and go watch this clip. My friend, Mark, introduced first pointed me to the Linda Lindas. They’re fantastic, inspirational, and will make you smile. I love when something comes around that makes you unequivocally say, “The kids are alright.” The Linda Lindas make me excited for the future of music.

My Conversation With Haruki Murakami Never Really Ends
InsideHook
Haruki Murakami writes stories that are as mind-bending as they are sublime and sometimes nakedly brutal. But they resonate and are truly books you finish a different person than you started. I can’t say that about many authors. This “interview” is arguably the most Murakami interview I’ve ever read. Even if you haven’t read Murakami, check out this interview and you find yourself checking out his work.

The Story Behind Mariah Carey’s Secret ’90s Alt-Rock Album
Pitchfork
Mariah Carey made a secret punky, alt-rock album in the 90’s – by day she and her team would work on what would eventually be the mega-hit album “Daydream” but at night they switched the reels and went off the cuff. Unfortunately, the powers that be found out and released the record with her friend doing the vocals. Will the Mariah Carey-vocal version ever see the light of day? We can hope! The songs are silly, but it’d be fascinating to hear what she’d sound like on them!!

Rutherford Falls
Peacock
I genuinely feel like this is the best show that no one is talking about. Or at least not enough people are talking about. Part of that I think is because it’s on Peacock which I don’t think gets much traction compared to the other streaming services. However, they do have a free (ad supported) tier. But, I’m telling you, it’s worth wrestling with a peacock. Ed Helms plays the history-obsessed descendant of the town’s namesake family who takes issue with talks to move the statue of his ancestor from its traditional place (in the middle of a road). Add in the Native American tribe that doesn’t believe the Rutherford’s kept their side of the treaty for the town back in the day… Did I mention the it’s the most Native American’s in any major writer’s room? Please, go wrestle the peacock and watch Rutherford Falls!

Harry Styles covers Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” on Howard Stern 
YouTube
This is one I noted down last year and never made it to a list, but it’s still great. I love Harry Styles, and this is a pretty straight-forward cover of “Sledgehammer,” but a) it’s a great song – it still, as the kids say, slaps. b) The band is tight and the whole thing will make you smile.

Selfie: 2021, Week 21 – Weeding

The beans are starting to train up the twine. The tomatoes are confused, with the smallest bearing three tiny tomatoes and the bigger plants starting to flower. The peppers have gone on strike with this mild spring. Even the zucchini is content to leaf out – not a single flower even though the garden plot catty-corner from mine has majestic zucchini resplendent with glorious yellow blossoms.

But my weeds! It’s early, sure, but I’ve got a bumper crop going of frustratingly creeping vines, broad-leafed deep-rooted parasites, and if you pull one up three grow back in its place…

Weeding is, without question, the worst part of gardening.

A couple of weeks ago my plot was utterly overrun with unwanted foliage. I had to split the work up over a couple of afternoons to give my back and knees a chance. And you know what I had at the end of each day to show for my labor? Dirt.

Of course, when I came back to water a couple days later it really did seem like all the plants (the legitimate ones I planted) seemed to stand a little taller, glow a little more vibrantly green.

Not gonna lie: I cursed them all a little bit.

I mean, I know, you’ve got to do the things you don’t want to do but are “good for you.” But if you’re looking for the sermon detailing how we’re all better off for the hard work of “weeding” in our own life, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Sure, the plants were standing tall, but my back was still sore. And I joked that I’d finish weeding a row only to turn around to find the weeds had all grown back.  It’s funny… because you know it’s true.

Truth is, I was planning on weeding on Sunday – marathon session under the midday sun and just get the whole plot done. That sounded great in my head! Of course it didn’t come to pass. You know what I did instead? Not a damn thing. Sunday could be seen – through a certain lens – as one colossal waste of time. Nothing whatsoever was accomplished.

But it was a blissfully necessary lethargy. And, I recognized, the eye of the storm.

The last few weekends have been jam packed with obligations. Last week in particular I fixed a can organizer project, built that drawer I wrote about, tended to the garden, even picked up the kitchen. And things are getting crazier from here on out, too, with trying to cram bartending gigs while preparing for an upcoming epic motorcycle trip that’s only about three weeks away.

I needed Sunday to do nothing just so I could remember what doing nothing felt like.

The weekend wasn’t a total waste, though. Saturday morning I got in a great hike from Shell beach up to Red Hill and then put the front wheel back on the motorcycle and gave it a quick test ride. Having officially accomplished a couple things, however, I settled in to a nice session of doing nothing.

I frequently find myself caught between two worlds. I know (and envy) people who just can’t sit still. They have to be fixing something, building something, creating something. Constantly in motion. These are the people who were happily weeding on Sunday after they cleaned their house top to bottom and afterwards prepared all the meals for the week.

I’m tired just thinking about these people.

I do have some of those tendencies.

However, I’m also a card carrying member of Procrastinators United (our motto: we’ll get you a motto tomorrow). Case in point: weeding. The weeds didn’t grow that much between Sunday and today.

An example of this dual states of mind is that Akilah gives me crap because I notoriously never finish a TV series. Part of it is I just don’t want things to end (I still haven’t finished the last half of the final season of The Good Place because I don’t want it to be over) so I’m pushing off watching the ending. But another part of not finishing TV series is that something’s got to be really good for me to sit through it.

I filled the 5-gallon bucket with weeds tonight before the failing light forced me to postpone finishing weeding for another evening. The tomatoes are weed-free, as are the beans and zucchini. I’ll probably be back at it on Wednesday, clearing the weeds from the finicky peppers and trying to figure out where the beets stop and the weeds begin. So far, my back doesn’t seem the worse for wear. Part of that is genuinely the rest I gave it yesterday – I was a little over exuberant on the downhill portions of Saturday’s hike.

Sunday was a wonderful day of doing nothing… except, of course, for letting my body rest so I can get going on everything that’s to come. Time’s going to go into fast-forward in just a second here. I’m glad I had a day to let everything slow down and quiet my mind and body.

The weeds, obligingly, waited for me.

Five Things This Week: 2021, Week 20

TikTok
Look, you either know it or are actively ignoring it. Either way, here’s five creators who I encourage you to check out because their content is really worth your time: 
@steveioe – An ER doc who provides unvarnished opinions/advice and drops a lot of MF-bombs. 
@mndiaye_97 – Always fascinating animal facts and the most entertaining way to keep up on wildlife beefs (who knew anteaters and leopards hated each other so much?!)
@propstohistory – Provides great stories about the history of famous props from movies. 
@celinaspookyboo – Started following her because of her astonishing sleepwalking videos, but she’s so much more than that. Really inspirational. And funny as hell.
@straw_hat_goofy – Insightful takes on movies and comics. His series of videos during Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier were spot on.

Freud 8″ x 20T Box Joint Cutter Set
I bought a Dewalt DW745 table saw a number of years ago. We took a long time to become friends, but now we’re close. One problem that I knew ahead of time from reviews was that the arbor on that saw is too short to take a dado stack. I didn’t think that would be much of a problem simply because I’ve never had a table saw before. But it became an issue as I got more acquainted with the saw and my projects got more ambitious. From one of the questions on Amazon someone recommended this Freud box joint cutter set. It allows you to cut either 1/4 or 3/8 inch dados depending on how the two blades are installed. It’s not as good as a full dado stack – having to do two cuts for a 3/4″ dado is certainly annoying. But it’s a lot better than having to make a dozen cuts with just the blade. 
Dewalt has discontinued the DW745 and replaced it with the DWE7485 (which has cool handles!!). It looks like it’s got the same short arbor, so the Freud blade set would likely still work.

Lite Brite Nation
YouTube
I’ve been following Kevin and Brittany Williams on YouTube for years. Primarily, they’re 4-wheelers with their massively modified Jeep JL, AKA “Stepchild”. But beyond that, they do drifting, they competed and finished this year’s King of the Hammers race, and they just have an enormous amount of fun. Honestly, just watching them be themselves goofing around is worth a watch. After living out of their Jeep (and truck) for the last few years, they just this week announced they bought a property in southern Utah. It’s an exciting new chapter for them and I’m glad they’re taking all of us along!

Alltrails 
I’ve mentioned elsewhere how much I’ve enjoyed hiking more over the last year. One of the apps I’ve found helpful has been Alltrails.com. Sometimes the interface can be a little frustrating, but the ability to find local hikes with up to date reviews as well as distance and elevation changes has been great. 

Campendium
Can you tell I’m planning for a trip coming up? Campendium is geared more towards RVers, but RVers who are looking to boondock – that is, set up in primitive campgrounds where there may not be running water or facilities. In a nice RV the lack of amenities may not be as big a deal as when you’re piitching a tent, but that’s just the kind of off-the-beaten-path kind of camping I love. Like Alltrails, reviews help a lot when you’re evaluating whether you want to head down five miles of washboard road for a free BLM (Bureau of Land Management, that is) camping spot.