HIGHLY RECOMMENDED W/ PACING
* Providing the A's to the 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Q's today is Pacing — a singer-songer from Pittsburgh who recently dropped a fun album called ‘hatemail’ that’s available on all the places (and you can catch the track ‘Who has ADHD now lol’ on the HI54 Mix CD ‘NIECHES’)
#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”?
This is the most cruel question. Do I pick the most underrated thing I know? The artist I think is most deserving of attention? My favorite album of all time? The one I have in my car CD player at this particular moment? The most out-there hyperpop shit that will make me look cool? My pick for most-important-composer of this century?*
*Alternate solutions (left to right): Dirty Dishes, Ramoray, Graceland, Weakened Friends, underscores, Jason Robert Brown
#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)?
Fleabag. Everyone needs to see Fleabag!
#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 recently read two books at the same time:
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America's Favorite Guilty Pleasure by Amy Kaufman
The first one took me three months, and the second one I binged in one day while putting off finishing the first one. I highly recommend reading these simultaneously if you'd like to experience an identity crisis around what feminism means to you in practice.
Since probably no one else wants that, 11/22/63 by Stephen King.
#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?
Omg I used to love the Social Qs advice column on the New York Times website. It's just this very sassy man very compassionately telling people that they are wrong and to get their shit together.
I used to read it on my flip phone and I would have to like hit the arrow button 400 times to get to a page that I hadn't read yet because it was not designed for mobile at ALL. I think unfortunately Reddit has taken this thing's place in my life as a grown-up. What a wonderful man. His name is Philip Galanes.
#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 guess makin' stuff. Journaling, memes, songs, whatever. And sharing it. I'm as addicted to my phone as the next person my age, but I have more fun sharing stuff than I ever did just scrolling.
One of my favorite musicals (*reader closes page*) has this song about the "vampires" that suck creativity.
“Next up is the air freshener vampire
She might look like you mama, or your old fat-ass, fat aunt Fanny
If she smells something unpleasant in what you’re creating
She’ll urge you to’
(Spraying sound)
It with some pine fresh smell ‘em ups
The air freshener vampire doesn’t want you to write about
Bad language
Blood
Or blow jobs
She wants you to clean it up and clean it out
Which will leave your work toothless, gutless, and crotchless
But, you’ll be left with two tight paragraphs
On kittens that your grandma would be so proud of
”
So yeah, post those drafts, bitches.
Sorry I called you a bitch, I don't know why I did that.
