LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 4 No. 3
Nick's LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 4 No. 3
Marilyn Owlroe is living her best life. (click image to see the video)
THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION
Hello again everyone. It's been a a lot of weeks. An inspiring few weeks. Weeks of socialization followed by weeks of retreat as COVID numbers rise.
- LIFESTYLE NOTICE: I have changed email providers. Hopefully you are receiving this. I’ve switched away from Mailchimp as it is getting really pushy about monetization and tracking and I’m like “NO THANKS BUDDY.” To celebrate, in this inaugural issue I AM DOUBLING BULLET POINTS.
- The only weird thing is that videos will show a preview in the email, but not a play button to indicate it is a video. The developer already has it on the list, but I'll manually note what images are videos until it is resolved.
- As part of migrating everything over, I made an index of topics written about and have links to back issues. Putting that MLIS to work.
- This may be one of the more fascinating older things that flew by the LIFESTYLE news desk over the past 8 weeks: Aural Illusions and How They Work. Obviously being a big audio nerd gives me a big appreciation of this type of stuff.
- Loving the Biden administration about 1000 times more than I thought I would. Jen Psaki is a fucking rockstar. NO MALARKEY! Now, they better ram that voting rights act through before 2022 or we are FUCKED.
- Racists, don’t ever change. OR DO. 1964 racists complaining about the Civil Rights Act sound like 2021 racists complaining about #BLM
- In the first six months of health care professionals replacing police officers, no one they encountered was arrested — Thank you, Denver.
- Got my 1st COVID shot on Saturday. I’m officially free and clear on 18 May. WHAT A WORLD WE LIVE IN!
THIS IS THE END OF THE INTRODUCTION.
3 THINGS THIS WEEK.
ITEM THE FIRST:
THEY DO THE MONSTER MEN. Been struggling over the past few months to deal with the reality of FAMOUS MEN BEING TERRIBLE. Within a week, the Woody Allen documentary aired on HBO, Even Rachel Wood stopped hinting and named Marilyn Mason as an abuser and PJ Vogt, a journalist I have been listening to for 10+ years, was outted as being a dick.
Now, obviously I knew Woody Allen was problematic and that Marilyn Manson was not a great dude, but having all these hit at once really make me take notice in a way I have not before.
I was 13 when all the Woody Allen stuff hit the media and as a young white suburban boy I totally bought the narrative of “his crazy spurned ex-lover was turning his kids against him.” As I grew older, I had a phase where I watched his movies constantly. Annie Hall is one of my favorite films ever. Manhattan is an artistic masterpiece. Zelig, Sleeper, What’s Up Tiger Lily?, Purple Rose of Cairo — I have seen them all, from 1966-2003. Watching that documentary made me really look at myself, how I was able to push those allegations away and ask myself if I can enjoy the art even when the artist is so terrible.
This is not new territory for me, as discussed in ITEM THE THIRD in LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 2. It’s shitty this has to keep coming up as an issue. I feel like I have to grade the art and artist on a spectrum and what I can view/hear on that day depends on where I am with the topic at hand.
Michael Jackson - child sex abuser.
Bill Cosby - rapist.
Chris Benoit - murder.
Dr. Dre - woman abuser.
Sean Tillmann (Har Mar Superstar) - sexual assaulter.
P.O.S. - gaslighter and terrible boyfriend.
All those acts above are not equal, yet each one gives me pause. FRIEND OF THE LIFESTYLE Wade recommended some good videos on this topic, here is the first in the series. (image is a video link:)
I also found some answers in this article What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
I think I will still be able to enjoy Thriller, but probably not be watching Manhattan any time soon. I’ll always treasure the memories of concerts I have been to by the artists named above, but I may wait awhile until I listen to the new Har Mar album. It’s a day by day thing.
PLEASE JESUS DON’T LET BOOTSY BE BAD. (image is a video link:)
ITEM THE SECOND:
LIFESTYLE V’GER. After last year’s big LIFESTYLE UNSOLICITED ADVICE project (LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 3 No. 5), I was asked to develop another thing for LIFESTYLE community participation. It took me a while to think of something, but it hit me when my best thoughts do, when I am pooping.
When I was 13, my dad gave me Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record book & CD-ROM as a gift. He explained me the story of what it was and I was fascinated by the idea of creating a record containing data/knowledge and the sounds of life then sending it out in space for aliens to potentially find (and totally not try to DIGITIZE EVERYTHING OUT OF EXISTENCE). In real life, here is a great JPL site with more information: The Golden Record.
So, here is my pitch: Every issue, I’ll pick two LIFESTYLE readers and ask them to contribute something to THE LIFESTYLE GOLDEN RECORD. There is really no criteria to what you can contribute since we live in MODERN TIMES and everything can be digitized (in a non-evil way). I’m hoping you’ll share something you love. Something that inspired or inspires you. Something that brings you joy or helps you cope with the reality of life. Something you want to share with all of the WONDERFUL ALIENS of the newsletter.
I’ll ask for a submission and some words from you about why you selected it. I don’t want this to be a stressor in your overwhelming life, so you always have the option to decline. YOU WILL NOT BE NAMED AND SHAMED.
I doubt I’ll press a record, but there will be some PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION that will be shared with all FRIENDS OF THE LIFESTYLE and we will celebrate it together since we will all be vaccinated and READY TO MINGLE.
ITEM THE THIRD:
CAN A COMPUTER DO…THIS!?! As a thrify white guy, I love a good BOGO deal, so here are two quick things about music.
ITEM THE THIRD SUB A: I was reading an manga called “Slow Motion wo Mou Ichido” [スローモーションをもう一度] (Slow Motion, Again), which is basically a manga written by someone stealing my thoughts and dreams. It is set in modern day Japan and about a boy who loves 80’s J-Pop idol music, but has to hide it since people around him make fun of him for it. He stumbles upon a quiet girl in his class that is also hiding the same secret. Once they discover each other, they are so happy to find someone to geek out about 80’s Japan and share their niche passion with. THIS WAS WRITTEN FOR ME. Anyways, I went through every chapter and made a list of all the music, TV, movies, etc. that they reference so I can make sure I have seen/heard it all and one of my discoveries was this: (image is a video link)
Onyanko Club was a group I have heard about since they were the prototype for modern idol groups like Morning Musume and AKB48. The song above was referenced in the manga and I found this video of them performing it with the lyrics translated in English. Make sure you watch how popular the group is and the age group watching. The song is called “Sailor Fuku o Nugasanai de” [セーラー服を脱がさないで] (Don't Make Me Take Off My Sailor Uniform). As someone who has followed Japan for a lot of my life, even this one shocked me. THIS WAS VERY POPULAR. It was the #35 song of 1985.
ITEM THE THIRD SUB B: Ran across this article in Rolling Stone about songs written by AI’s fed with audio stems and lyrics of musicians/groups where the singer died at 27: In Computero: Hear How AI Software Wrote a ‘New’ Nirvana Song. They then hired people in cover bands to perform the songs. Some of them are pretty, pretty, pretty good/close. The Nirvana track is a solid In Utero B-Side/demo, the Hendrix track is solid early Hendrix (with great faux-Mitch Mitchell drumming), the Amy Winehouse one is on-par with her usual fair. AMAZING TECHNOLOGY.
WEATHER CORNER:
Spring is coming.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (please mark "ok to print"):
Two great letters that brought joy to me in response to last issue.
Here’s my fave 2020 music (I didn’t listen to much new)
*(Thanks to the newsletter for this one)My favorite “new to me” in 2020 is easily MF Doom and Aesop Rock. Especially The Impossible Kid album. Especially especially Lotta Years. *
Some solid picks. I had never heard Sevana before, so I gave it a try. The Dua Lipa album was on the top of a lot of lists this year, but your recommendation pushed me to try it. The Heart Bones album was great, indeed but now is a bit PROBLEMATIC. I’ll pick it up again, but it will be awhile. I was looking forward to their concert so much. Thanks for sharing! I found something new thanks to you.
From another reader in response to the protocol for working during a coup attempt:
*I found out about the coup through [redacted] who found out about it because he IMed his boss a questions and her response was "I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time handling this because I keep paying attention to the coup" and then she went to AWAY on teams. So that was a fun few minutes of googling. In these times I would like to share with you the one internet post that I can say may have truely brought me joy. I laughed so hard when I saw this, even if the joy is only because of the darkest timeline we are in. *
NOTHING SURPRISES ME ANY MORE.
Thanks for your letters FRIENDS, keep sending them. They are the lifeblood of the LIFESTYLE.
FAVORITE THING TO GO IN MY EYEHOLES THIS WEEK:
I’ve been loving Letters from an American. Heather Cox Richardson is a historian and puts out a mostly daily newsletter about a current event or two in American politics and provides some historical context around it. If I had to pick one newsletter to read in a day, this is the one I would pick. Here are two recent samples that demonstrate her amazing talent. Give them a try and subscribe (for free or for money, you pick) if you find them as enjoyable as I do:
February 28, 2021 - by Heather Cox Richardson
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the House of Representatives passed the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill requested by the Biden administration. The vote was 219 to 212, with two Democrats—Jared Golden (D-ME) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR)—voting no. Not a single Republican voted for the bill.
March 14, 2021 - by Heather Cox Richardson
By the time most of you will read this it will be March 15, which is too important a day to ignore. As the man who taught me to use a chainsaw said, it is immortalized by Shakespeare’s famous warning: “Cedar! Beware the adze of March!” He put it that way because the importance of March 15 is, of course, that it is the day in 1820 that Maine, the Pine Tree State, joined the Union.
WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF GETTING BACK TO NORMAL.
NORMAL WAS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH.
WE HAVE TO MAKE THIS NEW NORMAL BETTER FOR ALL PEOPLE.
THAT IS ALL.