LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 7 No. 4
Nick’s LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 7 No. 4
THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION
Hello again everyone. It's been a few months. Weeks of recovery from THE BIG HIT (more details below). Weeks of INTENSE PLANNING (more details below). Weeks of remembering missed friends (RIP Lance) and parasocial friends (more details below). Weeks of my wife being amazing and playing through ALL of Railways of the World with me. THE BEST! I’m cutting this short because it is SUMMER BULLET FEST.
Went and saw The Shabby Road Orchestra do Sgt. Pepper live with FRIEND OF THE LIFESTYLE Jake and it was AMAZING. They brought out a sitar player for “Within You Without You” and had up to 20 people on stage at a time recreating the magic of that album. Seriously, go see them if you like late-stage Beatles.
Enshittification finally came for me with Personal Capital. It was such a nice service before it was acquired. Back to tracking on a fancy spreadsheet like it’s 2010. Internet is getting to suck. Finally bought a subscription to Kagi so at least search is getting better…
Part 1923 in the ongoing series on AI: Suno is an amazing AI generated music service. It creates lyrics, cover art and everything in a specific musical style you request. Were you looking for a grunge southern rock song about garage doors? Got you covered. How about an aggressive funk about coffee? Got you covered. More French in your dubstep? Got you covered. Just incredible technology. If you have investments in stock music companies, time to sell...
Have you seen Sympawnies? This guy is a classical composer and artist who turns pet pictures into playable music and beautiful sheet music. What a talent.
An episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Strong Songs, breaks down Blondie's “Heart of Glass” and what a song. I love listening to multitracks of original songs. I'm sitting on hundreds of these and I remember the first time I popped open a Blondie song and was like, "oh shit, she's very good." Great episode, give it a listen.
Time for some VIDEO BULLETS (which due to formatting are not bullet-y).
Is this heaven?
2025, Osaka, I WILL BE THERE
Part 1924 of the AI takeover, look at this trailer for The Simpsons done in a 1950’s style.
Hi-diddly-ho neighbor!
I cannot comment on this guy or his book, but this is an incredible and honest speech. Well worth the 5 mins.
“It will be fun she said”
🚨 JAPAN HAS FINALLY RESPONDED TO THE SHARKNADO 🚨
“Onsen shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark!”
ITEM THE FIRST:
THE COLLEGE DROPOUT (SORRY TO REFERENCE KANYE, BUT IT’S TOO PERFECT): Over the past few years I have been reading articles about a show called Game Changers on a service called Dropout. After reading yet another article about how brilliant it is, I decided to do what any person would do and fire up the internet and pirate all the episodes.
HOLY SHIT what a show. The premise of Game Changers is that it is a game show, but the contestants don't know the rules or how points are scored. Sometimes it is making the sound of the phrase on the screen (ex. A dinosaur speaks its first English or the more tools a surgeon asks for the clearer it is that they are winging it). Sometimes it is chaotically making things based on what is on a conveyor belt. Sometimes it is a race to the bottom of how much it will take a contestant to do something embarrassing. At its best it is making an original cast recording and doing karaoke in the style of a famous musician. It is honestly one of the best things I have ever watched in my life. Several episodes had my coughing because I was dying of laughter.
Here is a playlist of 6 full episodes on Youtube.
Or...just watch this clip. FUCKING INCREDIBLE.
About halfway into season 3 I knew I needed to pay for this. They have some other amazing shows on the service too like Smartypants, where the comedians give 5 to 10 minute presentations on topics like "Vegetables Don't Exist" or (my favorite so far) "In Order to Save Music, We Must Revive Swing Music Again." Another show just started called Thousandaires which feels like it was plucked from my brain. They give four comedians $1000 each to do something fun. Did you ever want to see a five person dress that doubles as a tent for a sleep over? GOOD USE OF FUNBUCKS BUDDY.
Dropout is what was originally College Humor, a staple of the early Youtube days. Eventually it was bought up by big money and in 2020 they laid everyone off and shut it down. Sam Reich (son of LIFESTYLE hero Robert Reich) was one of the employees and bought it, relaunching it right as COVID was hitting.
Anyways, in a world of streaming being so enshittified, this is the best money I've spent all year. They are totally independent and have no commercials or sponsorship money. They survive because of pirates like me saying this is a reasonable cost for this amazing thing that you have built to be amazing. Subscriber for life.
Because I believe in it so much and have enjoyed their programming so much, I have four prepaid gift subscriptions for one month to hand out to FRIENDS OF THE LIFESTYLE. If you are interested, let me know.
ITEM THE SECOND:
日本へ行く!: After years of putting it off and years of prioritizing retaining walls, drive ways, windows, roofs and everything but ourselves, the Lavely's are going to JAPAN!
This is something we've been wanting to do for basically our entire marriage. I think we are both pretty good at putting practical things ahead of pleasurable things so there was always something more important to spend the money on. In the past 18 months with all the work we've done on changing our money lenses and the passing of people in our lives, it is taking a bigger importance to get these things in. I've mentioned Ramit Sethi a lot and he had some advice about traveling that resonated with me. Basically, instead of trying to cram everything in one trip, why not plan to go more than once? I think the enormity of hitting everything we wanted to do in Japan in a two to four week period was overwhelming and was holding me back, thus we decided to do Japan TWICE!
We originally planned to do this in 2025, but while I was out on my run about six weeks ago, I said "could we actually do this trip this year? What is stopping it?" and I didn't really have a reason outside of needing time to plan. That sounded like bullshit to me, so I came home and told Melonie my epiphany and instead of having 400+ days to plan, etc., we had about 160. This gives us little wiggle room to put it off for yet another thing to take priority. I'M A GENIUS!
So, this year we are doing "The Northern Loop" - Tokyo (pt. 1), Sendai, Hakodate and Sapporo. I've spent an ENORMOUS amount of time planning BECAUSE I AM ME. I started using a service called Wanderlog and holy crap is it a game changer. You can create custom lists (like food, shrines, etc.) and it will put the places you add on a map, then you can start assigning things to days and it will help plan the route, calculate travel time, tell you when things are closed and hours, add notes and everything. It is great.
Some highlights I'm very much looking forward to:
Spending time with Melonie away from the REAL WORLD.
a Michelin starred conveyor sushi restaurant!
Record shopping for city pop and 80's kayo kyoku music and memorabilia!
Seeing the streets of Kamurocho (I mean Kabukicho) from the Yakuza games in real life!
Wandering the streets in Shinjuku hoping to run into 新井リマ!
Hoping to see a NJPW or Stardom show at Korakeun Hall (the Mecca for Japanese Pro Wrestling)!
Going to Marubeludō and seeing all the Showa and 80's kayo kyoku photographs!
Going to Mt. Hakodate and Mt. Moiwa!
Taking the bullet train and going in one of the longest underwater tunnels in the world!
The Historical Village of Hokkaido!
To be completely honest one of the reasons I've put this trip off for so long is that I'm terrified that being in Japan will make me never want to return to the US. Especially after the last 10 years. I'm not naive enough to think that Japan is perfect by any means. It is not. One of the first papers I wrote in college was about the racism in Japan. However, I think there is something I deeply identify with in how their society functions, the pacing of life (not so much in Tokyo, but in Hakodate) and having a societal safety net. I'm so disillusioned with the US, especially after COVID and how somehow democracy is a toss-up for November.
WELL, TIME TO FACE MY FEARS...
I plan on bringing my laptop and doing a bit of a daily diary while I'm there. If you are interested in daily emails for 15 days, let me know and I'll add you to the list.
ITEM THE THIRD:
THE BIG HIT. Well, it finally happened. I was always playing a numbers game. A few weeks ago as I was going down a hill on THE MINT MACHINE for my first ride of the season, a big SUV missed their turn lane and did a hook back to turn into the road they intended on. I could see it happening and slammed on my brakes, but they did not see me. I swerved as much as I could, but they tapped me and I went 22 MPH (I know because I have a speedometer) into a square curb. I flew slightly but bumped off my seat a few times. Me and the bike skidded on grass (thankfully), the pedal dug into my right calf, the handle bar dug into my sternum, the brake into my right forearm. The frame laid on top of me and I was pinned to the ground. It's a 50 lb. frame. The guy stopped and apologized and helped me up. I knew nothing was broken, but I was bleeding and sore. I just wanted to get home where I was safe. I texted Melonie (apparently with not enough detail for her) and used the full throttle eBike power to get home. I could not sit because of my ass and could not put too much power on my right leg due to the calf.
The weeks after that were a lot of laying down and icing. It took about two weeks until I could go for longer walks and start to run again. After the sternum was better, my right rib cage was very sore. Like I had a bruise under my ribs. Watching Dropout HURT. I literally had to stop watching funny things. LAUGHTER IS NOT THE BEST MEDICINE. Coughing and sneezing hurt for about three weeks, but I think I’m clear now.
That being said, it could have been A LOT worse. I could have died. Time to get to Japan. I’m also not biking for two weeks before we go…
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (please mark "ok to print"):
I’m shouting into THE VOID (mostly.)
Dear editor,
I would like to say firstly that you are most certainly not shouting into the void. Whenever I see a LIFESTYLE Newsletter come into my email inbox, I read it in its entirety as soon as I can dedicate the time to read it in detail. I enjoy seeing it pop in and it is probably my only real friend who sends me email for funnies. And, I just love it.
As far as the assignment you previously gave us, I love it. I'm planning on participating. I've been a little behind and have not gotten around to sending one yet. However, summer is the perfect time fo waxing poetic in letters to dear friends. I plan on 100% completion rate by the end of the year.
The main purpose of this letter, though, is to provide you with my Top 5 Weird things I love that I would adore sharing with you:
1. Hiking up a mountain, then sitting and smoking the celebratory joint at when you find the geodesic marker of the summit. (See attached photo)
2. Roller skating at a roller rink.
3. Bird watching. It will be so nerdy and fun. And while we're at it, we can look for edible wild mushrooms and other foragable foods.
4. Go to art a whirl in NE Mpls with me. I am moving SO CLOSE two weeks prior. We will be #mplsicons.
5. I have had a goal of riding a century on my bike for decades. It's still a goal. I challenge you to train to do one with me by the fall.
Game on. I love you dearly.
Thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it. I often ponder stopping the newsletter because of the lack of interactivity of the old days.
I’m a bit behind on my gratitude letters too, I’ve only done two, but I’ve set aside time because it is important.
In retrospect, my top 5 things direction were unclear. I was really just looking at top 5 things in a single topic you have expertise in and want to share. Like Top 5 most amazing bugs and here’s why. Or something, whatever.
I will share aspects of the things above if you wish, but I think training for a century bike ride conflicts with my own fitness goals and I do need to be a bit selfish with my time and aging body.
WEATHER CORNER:
It's beautiful on the porch today as I write this. Get out and enjoy these precious months!
MANDATORY FUN BUCKS MANDATORY UPDATE:
April was a pretty basic month.
I commissioned another Cure song for karaoke/rock band/YARG nights. “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea” is one of my favorite songs of ever and I have very vivid memories of listening to it over and over on their live release Show when it was the only tape I had for my Walkman when my mom freaked out and took all my music away from me.
The above mentioned Dropout subscription. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT THINGS YOU LOVE. I know we are burned out by subscriptions for fucking everything, but people deserve to be paid for the things you love and don’t want to go away. Especially when they are not mega corps.
May was a month full of presents/burdens and experiences.
I bought this fun Zelda shirt for Melonie to celebrate her love of finding all 1900 koroks over the past two games.
I also bought her a book that was recommended on a blog I SUBSCRIBE TO because she loves puzzles on her iPad.
During the month of May we had a dinner every Friday night to PLAN THE BIG TRIP and invited special guests to join us to share their experiences and tips for traveling to Japan.
I bought this kind of amazing knock off David Bowie costume for my top secret birthday celebration of friendship and karaoke.
THE HOPE SPOT:
Two articles stood out over the past few weeks.
The first, let me double check my notes on this… ”In this Spanish town, capitalism actually works for the workers”…?
In contrast, Mondragon’s nearly 70,000 members, ranging from floor workers to top executives, are co-owners of their businesses. They have voting power at general assemblies, where they weigh in on company strategy and policy. The income disparity between the highest- and lowest-paid employees in Mondragon’s cooperatives is capped at a ratio of 6-to-1, compared with a typical ratio of 344-to-1 in the United States. (It’s typically 77-to-1 in Spain.)
Considering helping people pay for private healthcare is seen as socialism here, this sounds like some real pinko commie shit:
“Here, no one is rich,” says Mr. Montalvo, who works for Ecenarro, a Mondragon cooperative in the automotive sector based in Bergara, a short drive through the valley from the town of Mondragón. “But no one is poor either. We’re all in that middle range, earning decent salaries.”
Sign me up!
This is AMAZING: NHS patients in England to be offered trials for world-first cancer vaccine. I look forward to all the dipshits refusing this vaccine as well.
FAVORITE THING TO GO IN MY EARHOLES THIS WEEK:
Ben Kweller - Sha Sha
I gave FRIEND OF THE LIFESTYLE Jake a homework assignment of sending me five albums he enjoyed. It was mostly Dad music, but this one. This perfect one was not. I missed out on this when it originally came out, but I’m making up for lost time. Kweller is an incredible musician and writer. I’ve been pouring through all his other albums and they have all been very good so far. His voice and his lyrics reminds me of a less fucked up/best version of Even Dando. Super solid.
IN MEMORY:
Steve Albini was a world famous musician and recording engineer who was integral in independent music in the 80’s and 90’s. He brought the Chicago sound to the world through his work with Touch & Go, one of the bigger labels of that 90’s alt music renaissance. I used to read all about him and his projects in Maximum Rock and Roll and Alternative Press magazines I would buy at Shinders or subscribe to.
He famously engineered Nirvana’s In Utero album for a flat fee hourly rate instead of points, treating them and billing them like another other band in the world. This is one of the best letters written.
Albini was an interesting person. He was one of the original “edge lords” or “shitposters” before the internet was a thing. We was a nerdy white dude who said terrible things to get quotes in music mags and to antagonize people in the music industry and avoid mainstream exposure. I forgot a lot of that stuff until he passed away and it was brought up again. I mean, he did front groups such as Rapeman and Big Black.
Later in life, he reflected a lot on his behavior and said “I’m embarrassed by it, and I don’t expect any grace from anybody about that.” Here is a great article about his life and his reflections on his past.
While I think it is easy to throw him in my on-going series of monstrous men, I will not. Maybe it is hypocritical. Maybe it is because everyone deserves some grace and forgiveness when they put the work in and apologize.
Three things I will always remember about Albini.
1) The Problem with Music was an article written in 1993 and one of the early things I remember being circulated on the internet. I think I read it in rec.music.industrial or somewhere on Usenet. If you can see how fucked up the music economy was back then, oh boy, wait until you hear about it now…
2) He was friends with Lil Bub and part of her life. Bub’s Dude, Mike, is a recording engineer and was mentored by Albini. It was a surprise when all of a sudden I started seeing Albini, the gruff angry music guy, show up on my internet cat videos. What a cross over. Albini gave the best speech at the Lil Bub Celebration of Life earlier this year. Here is a video of Lil Bub interviewing him.
3) His last ever social media post (on Bluesky) is just perfect Albini. WHAT A WAY TO GO.
The Atlantic has a much better written obit if you are into good writing.
THIS IS THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER
I AM NOT SAD ABOUT BEING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HILL.
BUT I AM AWARE OF IT MORE EVERY DAY.
PROVE LOVE WITH THE TIME YOU HAVE LEFT.
THAT IS ALL.