HIGHLY RECOMMENDED W/ HI54LOFI
* This Q&A with HI54LOFI is being re-broadcast from August 2016, but don't worry: top notch recommendations have a long shelf life.
#1 - WHAT IS THE ONE ALBUM (OR EP OR SONG) THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE THE VERY NEXT MUSICAL THING THAT EVERYONE PRESSES PLAY ON THE NEXT TIME THEY FIND THEMSELVES THINKING “WHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NOW”?
'Near Truths and Hotel Rooms' is the best live cd ever —to be perfectly honest, it is one of my favourite albums ever— and the reason is because Todd Snider has gotta be the most charming performer around. It is quite the feat to have people as excited about hearing the banter in between the songs as they are about hearing the songs themselves. And that's no knock on the songs, as Todd is one of the finest songwriters around.
The banter is just stand-up comedian good. I’ve listened to the ‘The Story of The Ballad of The Devils Backbone Tavern’ a thousand times, and every time I listen to it I sit there with a stupid grin painted on my face like a mom watching Oprah in the 90's. Every single time.
#2 - WHAT IS THE ONE MOVIE OR TV SHOW THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE NEXT IN EVERYBODY’S NETFLIX QUEUE (OK, DOESN’T HAVE TO BE NETFLIX, WE’RE ALL INTERNET ADULTS HERE AND KNOW HOW TO FIND ANYTHING ONLINE, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER)?
I recently had to cancel my Netflix subscription because they were still charging my monthly fee in £'s instead of in Canadian $'s, and apparently the only way to remedy that was to sign up anew. Before I jumped back on the Netflix train, I figured I would try out some free trials on the other Canadian streaming options that have popped up since I was last living here. One of those services had a show I had almost forgotten about, 'Bored To Death'.
I had season 1 on DVD from back when people used to have things on DVD, but up until now I had only watched parts of the other 2 seasons through the ways in which one usually needs to watch HBO shows when you don't have HBO. But Crave TV had all 3 seasons, so I binged the shit out of the entire series before my free trial was over and I inevitably went back to Netflix so I could watch Stranger Things.
As you can see in the trailer above, the cast is pretty stacked. And as you probably know already from Cheers and season 2 of Fargo, Ted Danson is legend.
#3 - I (AND BY “I” I MEAN “THE PERSON THAT IS READING THIS”) AM GOING TO THE BOOK STORE (OK, PROBABLY AMAZON) TO FIND THE VERY NEXT BOOK THAT I WILL BE PUTTING SOME EXTREMELY VALUABLE ‘ME-TIME' ASIDE FOR. WHICH BOOK WOULD YOU GET, IF YOU WERE ME (AND, I SUPPOSE, YOU HADN’T ALREADY READ WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO SUGGEST)?
I go through spurts of reading. Or at least trying to read. But I gotta admit, I can find it hard to really get caught up in a book. I blame my having a music blog / internet radio station and my attempts to keep that going, as reading takes time away from listening to music with lyrics (which is 99% of the music I listen to). Right now I have 3 books "on the go", which is probably a sign that neither of the books has really grabbed a hold of me.
The last book to get my undivided attention while I burned through it in a few days was Steven Hyden's 'Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me'.
Reading Hyden reminds me a lot of reading those early Klosterman books ('Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs' + 'Killing Yourself To Live' + 'Fargo Rock City'). The pages flew by and I found myself SOL-ing often (smiling out loud). It's probably because their midwest upbringings parallel with my growing up in small town Alberta. And when you combine that connection with the fact that I also like to spend more time thinking about music and pop culture than is probably normal, well, I suppose that makes me peak target market for consuming their words. Words like these:
#4 - WHAT IS THE ONE WEBSITE (OR JUST ANY OLD INTERNET THING: APP, GIF, SERVICE, WHATEVER) THAT YOU WOULD GET REALLY DOWN IN THE DUMPS ABOUT IF IT WERE TO SUDDENLY GO AWAY?
I like Twitter. I wish more people liked it. I've yet to get interested in attempting Snapchat and Facebook is kinda the shits. Instagram is alright, but it is very one-dimensional (besides, you can IFTTT to get your Instagrams over on Twitter). So how about everybody jumps on Twitter and we all give that a go as our main social media hub (and maybe follow HI54LOFI too)?
If you're one of those people that are not already on Twitter OR you signed up a long time ago but lost interest almost as long time ago… I wrote a totally serious guide on how you can up your Twitter game to Rock Star level. So I guess I will see you out on the twitter dot com?
#5 - AND FINALLY… PLEASE GIVE ONE COMPLETELY UNAIDED RECOMMENDATION THAT YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD START DOING / USING / WATCHING / EATING / THINKING / QUITING / ETC-ING TO MAKE THEIR LIVES A LITTLE BIT MORE BETTER AND/OR BEARABLE.
The only way to stop procrastinating is to start working on the thing you are putting off. Once you start that thing, your brain is designed to want to finish what it has started. Or at least that is what I heard on a podcast once and have found in the past that it kinda works.
That hasn't kept me from continuing to procrastinate on the daily, but hey, you gotta procrastinate some things, right? I mean, you can't start on EVERYTHING right now, right?!
