Dear Friend,

Hey there, how’s it going?

Last month I got this basic composition notebook — the exact kind you might be visualizing right now — what with the black-and-white cow print on its front cover and wide-rule pages that make me feel like a 5th grader again. And two months in, the notebook is already filled almost halfway through — I’ve just been absolutely writing like a mad man, beating the hell out of the thing, and loving it way more than I have any right to.

The cheap and shittiness of this notebook are its greatest strengths. Not only is this notebook bigger (and more spacious) than those I typically use for my Bullet Journaling, but because of its cheap price and quality — I don’t care enough to write neatly and be tidy with it. Instead I just write, vent, doodle, or otherwise brain-dump my way through this notebook with complete abandon. So filled with messy handwriting, crossed-out words, and random arrows, this notebook lowers the friction of writing and it’s been amazing to just absolutely not cherish it in the best way.

As my work now increasingly involves AI (I am but a meat proxy), I find myself spending my weekends and any non-work hours as far away from screens and technology as possible.

I now have the fewest number of apps on my phone since my first iPhone from 10+ years ago. Aside from some one-off meditation or banking apps, everything else is stock iOS apps that came with the iPhone. It’s a privileged situation really, as I also have an iPad where I can offload all my apps to — and then leave my iPad at home.

I’ve also been continuing last month’s effort to use my daily commute listening to one well-known musician at a time in order to get a better understanding and familiarity with their work. I spent my July listening to Radiohead, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Fiona Apple, with this month spent listening to Tori Amos, Beck, and Rufus Wainwright (whom I’ve always loved). It’s been really nice to have a set time allocated to understanding why these artists are such a big deal.

And this is especially refreshing when albums today, in contrast, are so much shorter in duration. Charli’s new Music, Fashion, Film album and Tyler the Creator’s Don’t Tap The Glass are good, but these entire album are barely 30 minutes long. And nice as these albums may be, spending my long commute or run means I’ll hear at least some of their songs at least twice, which makes these albums wear out that much faster.

(The latest offender is Benny Blanco’s new album, which quality and ick factor aside, technically has 8 tracks bun the entire album runs for less than 17 minutes. Like, what are we doing here?)

With streaming platforms paying artists per song, and barely anything at that, I don’t blame artists trying to game the system and optimize how much they can get paid. But I do wonder how long this can realistically continue until an album is but a collection of jingles? At least I still my OK Computer on my 5th gen iPod.

And here's the rest of it…

Thanks for reading this and being with me on this journey. Reply or comment and let me know what’s going on in your world! You can also check out past issues of Dear Friend, here.

In/Out List

Inspired by The Verge, I figured this might be a good way to keep track of my latest and ever-changing interests…

• Out: Keeping up on Podcasts feeds
• In: Diving in to artists' backlogs

• Out: MagSafe thin wallet
• In: Fat Wallet with cash

• Out: Reading 1 book at a time
• In: Reading 1 chapter across many books

• Out: Taylor Swift
• In: Tori Amos

Here’s the rest of it:

• The photos I took this month
• Interesting enough to share but not enough to write about:
  • A Trail Tale — Visual novel of Andy hiking through the Appalachian Trail
  • Death Cab for Cutie: Tiny Desk Concert
  • 82 Little Things That Make Life Good
• Don't forget, I’m on Bluesky! Chat with me there!

— Love wins