Intro / Preface / Extra Words
Brian and I like to read things on the Internet, and we read a lot of things on the Internet. While we love sharing many of those things with you via this newsletter, we've received feedback that maybe we should share slightly less of those things in the interest of y'all feeling like you can actually read every link in each issue.
In light of this feedback, and in an effort for us to make these issues a little easier to create and distribute, we've limited ourselves to five (FIVE) links this issue.
In other news, our very first podcast episode, which covers the "making of" / behind-the-scenes of Issue 39's creation, has been recorded and is getting a little polish before going live. We'll be posting the link on various social media channels, so be on the lookout for that.
In other other news, the next edition of Trash Fire is coming soon, like really soon. Like it might be in your inboxes just in time for Thanksgiving travel reading.
We love you all. Enjoy.
Heavy Rotation
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme Song (Metal Cover), a song by Leo on Spotify
In case you missed the Let It Go metal cover from a while back here's one better! -Brian
Food
Oaxaca’s Potent Secret, Mezcal Is Born of Time, Tradition and a Slow-Growing Plant
I haven't really had a chance to try out mezcal. But I do love a nice tequila (añejo or reposado please) so I keep meaning to check it out. Hopefully I can do that before the demand and over-harvesting bring about the extinction of the mezcal plant. We only hurt the things we love... -Brian
You Fancy, Huh
Yung-1 Alpine Sneakers
I'm not just sharing this because I'm a Dad now (and these are the most Dad shoes ever maybe). I'm also sharing this because if you're of a certain age, this amazing website will bring back fond memories of times gone by; a world where you could edit the HTML of your social media profile and sprinkle in all sorts of custom magic. Fair warning, this website will probably obliterate your computer's battery and use all your RAM. – Calvin
Sports (Disc Golf)
Mirror Images
I didn't add a note to remind myself who sent this to me, but I bet it was Matt W. or Andrew M. So, thanks to both of you or neither of you.
If you often find yourself in conversations that sound like this:
You know who -- insert current NBA player name here -- reminds me of? He's like a -- insert characteristic of said player's game -- version of -- insert name of retired NBA player here.
...then you'll love this website. I love that they didn't compare MJ to Lebron, because that has always been a terrible comparison to me. Kobe is obviously a better one-to-one comparison–though obviously MJ > Kobe OK, I'm not here to fight. – Calvin
Further Reading
An Apology for the Internet — From the People Who Built It
I guess I'm going to just once again throw myself into the hypocritical-luddite trope I've hollowed out in the soft and loamy sands of this newsletter.
I present to you several truisms cum trestles of the despair train that is our current culture:
- Outrage is the most profitable emotion.
- Facts die in favor of clicks.
- Algorithms in our feeds continuously thicken the walls of the filter bubbles we've willingly locked ourselves inside.
- The dopamine hits of likes, shares, retweets, and upvotes is the coke-pedal of rats in the lab who can't walk way for long enough to even eat or breed.
- We are more connected and yet more lonely than ever and when we are together we stare at small blocks of aluminum and plastic in our hands instead of interacting with other warm blooded and equally lonely humans.
But how do you blame the technology? Are sticks and stones responsible for the existence of war? Or do they simply provide the leverage to enhance the lethality of our worst inclinations? Instead of complaining about the spear and sword or social media and smartphones maybe we need to look deeply inside ourselves and ask whether and why we are all this broken? -Brian