HIGHLY RECOMMENDED W/ MAGANA
* This Q&A with Magana is being re-broadcast from September 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”?
Mmmm this album has been popping up all over the place lately, but if you haven't already then you should definitely listen to "All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend" by AURORA.
It's full of beautiful, magical musings by a 20 year old Norwegian fairy. Her voice is perfect and her songwriting makes me want to believe in magic. Someone sent me a video of her singing a while back with only the word "mesmerizing" under it, and I totally get it. Also watch her live videos because she has some crazy/charming moves when she sings.
#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 totally recommend High Maintenance. It's a show created by a husband/wife team (the husband is also the main character) and it was only on Vimeo but recently got picked up by HBO! Maybe I'm partial to it because of all the New York commentary, but I think it's relatable to everyone anyway.
Each episode follows the main character, a weed delivery guy, into the lives of all sorts of random characters and shines a small light into these very different worlds. It ends up covering all sorts of relevant issues (bad dates, awkward family dynamics, chronic illness, cross-dressing fathers...you name it) and the main character is just one of those guys that is so likable that I would probably watch it just for him. I don't even think he has a name in the show. It's just all about these weird situations.
There's an episode where this guy starts dating this kind of clingy girl and gets weed delivered, and the delivery guy has to break the news that this girl is actually known as "homeless Heidi" and totally just hits up dudes for a place to stay and food and stuff. Because of course he would know. The weed delivery guys knows everything.
#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)?
Make sure you read Just Kids by Patti Smith at least two times in your lifetime. She took her time writing it and it shows; she did a really good job. It shines such a cool light on that period of time and all of the people that she encountered at the Chelsea Hotel. And of course, you learn so much about Robert Mapplethorpe.
It's also so cool to see what she was thinking when she first played with her guitarist, or when they made their first recording and decided to throw the B-side "Piss Factory" on there. I love getting into artist's minds and figuring out if they knew what they were doing was going to be legendary and sometimes she totally did and sometimes she had no clue. So good.
Also if you've already read that book at least twice, go pick up pretty much any book by Haruki Murakami. Every single time I pick up one of his books I can't put it down. He's so good at creating these insane mysteries and then as you're reading to find out the answer to this unanswerable question you finally start to realize that some things are never going to be answered and the mystery is actually bigger than you could have imagined. It's infuriating and fascinating and I always end up wishing I could call him and just yell into the phone, "BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS THING! WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS PERSON!" but of course I never will. I wonder if that's ever happened to him.
As I'm writing this this I remember that he wrote a book about running....that wasn't really a mystery. That was just a book about him running. So maybe don't start with that one.
#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?
This is going to sound super nerdy and I totally don't care because it's my favorite thing ever. But the Kayak Explore page has changed my life.
When I feel restless, I just open it up and set it for anywhere, any time. My birthday is in January and I really wanted to get out of the miserable cold this year and so I was just kind of looking around and ended up scoring flights to this beautiful, safe-but-not-touristy-yet part of Mexico. I had never even heard of it before but I bought these tickets and got a bunch of friends to go and it was probably the best vacation any of us had ever taken. I'm always texting people something stupid like " We can go to Italy for $400 let's go tomorrow" and it drives everyone nuts but whatever. I love a good deal.
#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.
Go outside! Life is so much better when you have real air and real sun and all that good stuff. Maybe even go camping! But if you can't go camping... just make sure you go outside at least one time when the sun in shining.
Also...everyone should seriously quit drinking sodas. Stop it. Sodas have like a million pounds of sugar in them and they're still not even that good.
OK folks, there you have it. Things that Magana thinks you should consider incorporating into your day/life. Before you go book a cheap flight outside, give Magana a follow on the ol' FACEBOOK / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM combo and go spend some quality headphone time on her Bandcamp page.
