Notes app – The Beths – A good playlist
...and other recs!
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
In The Sunday Essay this week, Sharon Lam (author of Lonely Asian Woman) wrote about the mysteries contained on her phone’s notes app:
“But while Didion’s notes are chic snapshots of elegant strangers in hotel settings and mannerisms of the epistolary elite, mine read like clues in a crappy Memento remake. “Hysterical dog pregnancy”, “plastic bag boy = Shannon”, “the décor made me feel positively about the economy”. Who wrote these? Why? Who is Shannon? In the endless capacity of digital note-taking, nothing is too small or insane to jot down.”
It’s a very funny and relatable read, and I recommend doing what you are definitely going to want to do anyway after reading it: diving into your own notes app for your own crappy Memento remake. Mine involves trying to figure out what I’m meant to do with “90s gym”, and investigating the hypothesis “are most songs better without drums”.
–Cal
This week’s new podcasts
On When the Facts Change [Apple | Spotify], Bernard Hickey spoke with NZ Super Fund CEO Matt Whineray and Mindful Money founder Barry Coates about the rise of ethical investing.
On The Fold [Apple | Spotify], Duncan Greive spoke with Samson Samasoni about NZ On Air’s ‘Where are the Audiences’ report and reaching Pasifika audiences.
On Business is Boring [Apple | Spotify], Simon Pound spoke with Gd1 partner and former Apple leader Vignesh Kumar about the venture capital game.
Gone By Lunchtime [Apple | Spotify] assumed the role of epidemic response committee (unofficial).
And The Real Pod [Apple | Spotify] continued to dive into the new season of Celebrity Treasure Island and deliver all the usual Real News, Real Life and other bits and pieces.
Subscribe and listen now wherever you get your podcasts!
Melodownz on FIRST
Tāmaki-Makaurau rapper Melodownz tells us about a really good first car, an underwhelming first gig, a short-lived pet goldfish and more in this week’s episode of FIRST.
Extremely Online: Welcome to the Game of Love
With the evolution of the internet and the emergence of dating apps, it seems that love really is a game. Learn all about how we’ve gamified love in the latest episode of Extremely Online, from the team at Shit You Should Care About.
Blacktop Wasteland
Duncan says: “I read two genres of book: narrative-driven studies of business failures (and very occasionally successes), and low to middle-brow crime novels, the latter largely as a non-chemical sleeping pill. There are so many basically fine writers who have one tic or affectation I find intolerable that finding someone new whose voice I unambiguously love is a rare and joyous occasion. So it is with S.A. Cosby, whose Blacktop Wasteland is just a perfect modern noir. It’s basically a pacy heist, but its protagonist carries wounds from his father and the weight of his compulsions and his whānau in a way which hugely elevates it from the hacky genre. Plus, when Cosby got his first good cheque as a writer he bought a $600 lazyboy, which feels like exactly what one of his characters would do. As a result, far from putting me to sleep, I read the whole thing right through the night.”
The Beths – Auckland, New Zealand, 2020
Alice says: “The Beths’ new concert film is a really charming watch, with snippets of the bandmates hanging out, playing Sardines and beach cricket between str8 rockin performances of their many, many hits from their 2020 Town Hall show. It’s impossible not to dance along, and it’s free to watch on Youtube!!!” [Read Chris Schulz’s story about The Beths’ live album / film here.]
Behind the Attraction
Alex says: “I sat on the couch, slack-jawed and dead-eyed, and watched all of the Disney+ docuseries Behind the Attraction the other weekend. I now know all about the little cultural adjustments that Disney have made on their rides from park to park, how they managed to speed up the Tower of Terror to drop faster than gravity allowed, and what Space Mountain looks like with the lights on (really bad). It’s not earth-shattering, but it is mildly interesting and low stress and, at this stage, that’s good enough for me.”
The Weather Station – Ignorance
Shanti says: “I’ve been listening to Ignorance, the new album from Canadian band The Weather Station. The album is about the climate crisis; what we listen to and what we choose to ignore. Somehow, in binding up this excellent lyric writing with music (it's sort of alt-folky ―I especially love the percussion), I find the promise of something new.”
Deathloop
Chris says: “A jaded man wakes up on Groundhog day and does the same shit in the same place at the same time, all day, every day. Yes, that's been my life in lockdown for the past five weeks. It's also the situation that Colt, the marksman at the centre of new Playstation 5 game Deathloop, finds himself stuck in. For unsurprising reasons, I have connected with this game hard. Like me, Colt is forced to repeat the same stuff in an attempt to break a time loop. Unlike me, Colt does not have to make his kids umpteen plates of carrot sticks and crisps. Instead, he gets to blast his way through the coastal island of Blackreef, taking out maniacal mercenaries with glee. At the end of another day in lockdown, I get to become Colt, and lockdown life becomes just that little bit more tolerable.”
A good playlist
Lucy says: “I have been neglecting listening to music a bit this lockdown, so this playlist put together by Phoenix Foundation’s Luke Buda was just what I needed. It’s a good one to have on in the background while working, a few familiar favourites mixed in with some new finds – Ocean Blue and Right Down the Line always manage to get me in a good mood.“
A Barrel of Bitches
Sam says: “I recommend this video from ten years ago called A Barrel of Bitches. It’s a montage of actresses from old movies doing things that range from badass to awesome to despicable, set to Meredith Brooks’ 1997 anthem ‘Bitch’. I have watched it once a day during lockdown, and it has an effect somewhere between ibuprofen and half a glass of wine. I would like to go outside now please.”
Having a dance
Leonie says: “A similarly primal rec to Amber’s great crying recommendation for Aucklanders last week – dancing! After a particularly tough day, my bubble mate and I put away our phones, popped on some music, and cut a rug for a while. We let it all out, jumped around, attempted some rock’n’roll moves we did not have the coordination to pull off and I felt 1000% better afterwards. Dancing produces endorphins and reduces the stress hormone, cortisol. And it just feels good, man!”
That’s all for this week! Please reply to get in touch and share with anyone else who might like to subscribe too. See you next Wednesday 👋