Three Things I'm Grateful For
A playlist, a podcast, a changed opinion
Let’s make this a Friday thing, shall we? A little music, a recommendation, some reflections. Let’s get it!
1) Bill Evans
Things have been a bit grating lately, and I find myself in need of quiet stimulus1. Sitting in silence has its time and place (I’m perversely proud of the tiny number of listening minutes on my Spotify wrapped) but even silence gets loud.
Thank god for Bill Evans. Beautiful, complex, peaceful, yet not overly serene, the man was a master of quiet emotions. For those that don’t know him, his most famous work is as the pianist on Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue, but as a solo player/leader of the Bill Evans Trio, he composed, arranged, and played some of the most thoughtful jazz chords your ears have ever heard. Mellow without putting you to sleep, easy yet remarkably deep, it’s good for focused work, romantic evenings, or reading a good book by a fire (how I spent most of my thanksgiving weekend).
This little starter pack will get your taste buds and modal jazz algorithms going.
2) Scene On Radio Season 7: Capitalism
One of the few criticisms I have of my particular Ivory Tower education (of the College-Industrial Complex, I have many…) is how impossible they made it seem to be anything other than a Banker, a Doctor, a Lawyer, or Engineer. These jobs showed up with clearly-defined resume drops, regimented schedules, processes that we, the good A-students we’d been trained to be, could follow with ease. If you wanted to be absolutely anything else…good effing luck2. In other words, too many Liberal Arts degrees end up just feeding the Capitalist Machine.
So, how proud and surprised I was to find this excellent deep-dive History Podcast about the origins and impacts of our Capitalist system — produced by The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, the ol’ Alma Mater.
It’s neither radical nor wide-eyed, just a 12-episode exploration (~1hr each) that traces the transition from feudalism through mercantilism into the exploitative system we have today. It stares down the bad stuff, asks important questions, and even attempts to lay out some ways forward. Best podcast I’ve listened to in a long while — and it’s not just for the frustrated leftist in me. If you’re into big picture thinking, history, or just longform storytelling, give it a listen.
3) Sunsets On The Beach
The West of LA is a funny place, one of the most stunning examples of nature I’ve seen — mountain, bay, and the great Pacific Ocean exploding with life and bright orange and purple sunsets. And so there we built a mall3.
The Venice Boardwalk, less mall-like than Santa Monica, is a carnival of homeless, tourist, and ultra-wealthy alike, all awash in the faint smell of weed and desperation4. But damn is it nice to spend some time there.
So, when some amazing friends let us stay in their Venice Bungalow while they were away for Thanksgiving, I was hesitant at first, but then relished in the nature, the fireplace, and the daily sunsets.
Don’t ever take those for granted. But it’s also a good reminder that you don’t have to chase ‘em either. They happen every single day.
Hope you can take advantage of one soon,
-David
We saw The Substance the other day, a brutally grotesque “body horror” flick about the way we treat female beauty, and when I came home in need of a serious palate cleansing, Joni Mitchell was too much for us to handle.
My first job out of school was, in fact, as a management consultant. And I FUCKING HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT.
For those that don’t know it, the Santa Monica promenade is LITERALLY a mall, with a pier selling $20 funnel cakes and an Aeropostale selling $20 fast fashion.
Of course, I’m mostly just holding on to my own shame. My biggest issue with the West Side: the “it’s oh-so-easy to be aligned and peaceful” kind of privilege that my life is all too full of.