HIGHLY RECOMMENDED W/ BOYWITHAHALO
* Providing the A's to the 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Q's today is boywithahalo — a US-via-China music-maker who recently dropped a lovely single called ‘story’ (which you can catch on the HI54 Mix CD ‘INDIE AMERICA, USA’)
#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”?
I highly recommend the Twilight Saga soundtracks! I know a lot of people enjoy the books and a lot also dislike the movies. I honestly am indifferent about the films and have not read the books, but the accompanying soundtracks speak to my SOUL. All the handpicked artists and songs were perfect for the aesthetic and mood of the films/book, props to the curators!
Each time you listen it's like it exists within its own little world, a pocket subgenre of melancholy non-pop indie with a menacing but not abrasive undertone. It's something I often implement in my own music! When emotion and imagery can be conveyed with minimal decibels needed, that is the best music to me personally.
#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 just watched an anime called Terror in Resonance, and it's my favorite thing right now, a very underrated and fairly unknown show from 2014.
The music is STELLAR (what do you expect from Yoko Kanno), art style has a tiny bit of Ghibli characteristics, plot is intriguing, and I find myself relating to the demeanor of Twelve! And yes all the main characters are hot, even the detective. If that's not a good enough reason to watch, ahem, YOKO KANNO.
#3. I (AND BY “I” I MEAN “THE PERSON THAT IS READING THIS”) AM GOING TO THE LOCAL BOOK STORE (OK, MAYBE THE LOCAL LIBRARY FIRST) 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 actually love picking up geography books from the library! When I was younger I had an acute fascination for other countries, cultures, their mountain ranges and sea levels, I still like looking at that stuff to this day. It's a weird fixation, sure, but I like to think that I'm a child of the world, not just one country, culture, or perspective.
I like being informed and attached to all, learning from all, and being able to mediate and exist between them.
#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?
YouTube is one of the most important platforms to society right now. It's where I go to learn and relax, it's taken up both those sectors of my life! It's even more important to me now that I've been planning a long-term YouTube career to accompany my music and Twitch content. But with the current censorship, demonetization and whatnot, many fear of where things are headed and I share a bit of that sentiment. Of course I'm not YouTube HQ or a majority voice, so my opinion is limited by my own experience and what I want out of YouTube. I miss the Filthy Frank-type creators, that's all.
Not that I'm planning to do similar content, I should make that very clear, but the free-spirited approach to making whatever content you want excluding all societal pressures of normalcy, that is rare form these days, and pretty much a self-ending career. Sadge.
#5 - AND FINALLY… PLEASE GIVE ONE COMPLETELY UNAIDED RECOMMENDATION THAT YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD START DOING / USING / WATCHING / EATING / THINKING / QUITTING / ETC-ING TO MAKE THEIR LIVES A LITTLE BIT MORE BETTER AND/OR BEARABLE.
I'll give some random life hacks off the top of my head!
1. Water filtration system over buying water
2. Milk BEFORE cereal (trust me, TRUST ME)
3. When cooking something saucy but low moisture (e.g. teriyaki), add tiny bit of water in the pan to deglaze before serving
4. Bay leaves are reusable!
5. Your iPhone's back camera likely has a higher megapixel count than the front camera, thus higher photo quality
6. If you are slow-cooking something, you can probably skip pre-marination!
Not sure why most were about cooking, but I promise they are all indeed helpful!
I also highly recommend trying out baking, it's a stress reliever for me and it makes the house smell great.
OK folks, there you have it. Things that boywithahalo thinks you should consider incorporating into your day/life. Before you log off and go bake until your house smells great, make sure to follow boywithahalo on the Instagram / Twitter / Twitch and then also give ‘Story’ a listen below…
