Category: Blog the Block
Friday Roundup,
“Submerged, the idle chatter of the monkey mind recedes. Each stroke, each lap is like a metronome, lulling me into a calm state of presence. When my swim is complete, I have an inescapable feeling of gratitude, with a light dusting of accomplishment.”
–Rich Roll
Happy Friday, from Florida. It’s been grey here, so don’t be jealous. Here’s what I’ve been up to this week.
What I’m Reading:
Ryan Holiday’s case for swimming as meditation. I’m getting back in the pool after a little hiatus. Holiday’s article reminds me why I swim.
An article in the Times Magazine arguing “The Age of the Artistic Recluse is Over.”
What I’m Listening to:
Urban Hymns – the Verve. They’re known as a one-hit-wonder for “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” but the whole album is brilliant. “Neon Wilderness” has been the song I play on repeat while I work.
Jocko Willink’s interview with Peter Attia, an ER surgeon who treated the gunshot wounds of the Baltimore gangsters who inspired The Wire.
What I’m Doing:
Swimming. Bodysurfing. Talking about fountain pens and Raymond Chandler on Reddit.
Doing the workouts from Jocko Willink’s Discipline Equals Freedom: a field manual. These are INTENSE. On a road trip last week, I did his hotel room pushup set. It went like this:
5 x 10 pushups
2 x 50
4 x 25
5 x 20
5 x 10
(400 pushups total. Rest between each set)
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5 True Crime Podcasts
I’ve been obsessed with true crime podcasts lately. Because they’re so much fun, because serial killer stories are more uplifting than current events, because I’m doing research for a top secret fiction project I can’t talk about yet.
These are my favorites.
A Killing on the Cape
“You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.”
ABC (20/20)’s investigation of the murder for which every man in the small town of Truro, MA was a suspect at one point. Look no further for your Serial fix.
This one’s fun for me because it takes place in my backyard.
True Crime Garage
“Be Kind, and Don’t litter.”
Just a couple of guys drinking beer in a garage and talking about crime. The depth of their research is unreal. They’ll devote six, seven hours, over three parts, to a case if that’s what it requires. They revisit cold cases with new developments and bring in the occasional expert from the online amateur detective community.
My Favorite Murder
“Stay sexy. Don’t get murdered.”
The Pumpkin Spiced Latte of crime podcasts, this one will make you feel a little less weird about listening to serial killer stories for entertainment. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark break up the gory details of the case at hand with basic AF interjections like “what the actual fuck?”
If you’re already up on the killers they discuss, it’s not likely you’ll learn anything new, but it’s worth tuning in for the banter.
All Killa No Filla
“Dead Funny.”
The U.K’s contribution to the all female true crime podcast sub-genre–for which the audience is huge apparently. Rachel and Kiri deliver the same mood-lightening tangents as their sisters across the pond at My Favorite Murder but with a bit more research.
It’s super charming and adorable when they correct their various Britishisms for a global audience. Like in the John Wayne Gacey episode when they say Gacey was “leathered, I mean drunk, I mean hammered.”
Dirty John
“Where other people saw red flags, she saw a parade.”
Hailed as “the best true crime podcast since serial,” by NME, Dirty John tells the story of the scumbag of the century and the woman he duped.
This is a production of the L.A times. Like NPR’s Serial and ABC’s A Killing on the Cape, this one benefits from serious journalism and the resources of a major media company.
The Why…
Joe Rogan, absolutely kills it at sharing something every day. His podcast is one of the most popular on iTunes, and at over a thousand episodes is among the most prolific. Part of what makes his output possible is that his show is largely unedited, taking the form of free-flowing conversations that can go on for two to four hours.
The Joe Rogan Experience doesn’t have the production value, the narrative structure, or the cool synth interludes of a Serial or This American Life, but it isn’t encumbered by the editorial or production constraints that force those shows to work on seasons like television programs. Rogan has true creative control over his platform and the result is a space where compelling and controversial figures can talk about whatever the hell they want.
In my own blog-smithing, I’ve taken a lesson here, because, for the longest, time I was held back by the urge to be a certain way or write a certain kind of post–all authoritative, pseudo journalistic, and, in my worst moments, life-coachy–rather than let this outlet develop organically into whatever it’s going to be.
So, today, I set out to write a post about the big “why?” behind all this putting oneself out there stuff. I wanted to reiterate the cliché but very true advice that life’s to short not to make stuff and share it with the world–if that’s what you want to do with your short time here. It should come as no surprise that there’s no shortage of voices online saying just that.
I thought about doing a listicle of lesser-known sources advising you to follow your passion–or, in Ryan Holiday’s case, follow your purpose. Instead, I settled on a single clip from episode #972 of the Joe Rogan Experience that makes the simple case for why you might want to stop “wasting your life in the 9 to 5 rat race” and how to do it.
– YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
(By the way, if you’re keeping score re: Joe’s output, #972 was released on June 7th, 2017, and he’s now on episode #1037. That’s one episode ever 2.3 days. Imagine how productive he’d be without all those edibles…)
“People with Real jobs are so mad at us right now…”
Be a Minimalist
Another loaded milenial word… But Rogan is talking about priorities. Sort out what’s important to you and make it a priority, because you don’t have much time. Quit trading your living hours for “stuff.”
Make Enough Money
Nobody’s advocating starving. It’s about knowing what enough means to you and not busting your ass to earn more than that when you could be spending that time having an experience or working on something meaningful.
Rogan’s guest, Ari Shaffir suggests working on a tugboat in Seattle for a few months to save up for an adventure.
Take a Gap Year
In Europe, they have the same expectation that college is the next step after high school, but they also have a culture of taking time off. Parents don’t freak out when their kids want to go see Thailand before the show up to University.
A too-easy and totally untrue criticism of world travel is that it’s a luxury. Bullshit. You can join the peace corps, you can get a job overseas. My first job out of college was teaching English in Korea. Half the Americans I met there were sending money home to pay off student loans. When I left, I was freaking out, wondering how I could afford to live in the States. It was cheaper to keep traveling, so I moved to Spain.
You don’t have to be a child of privilege to travel or quit your job to follow your bliss, but you do have to reevaluate your priorities.
Get out of the Nine-to-Five Mindset
Rogan and Shaffir unpack the absurdity of sick days, vacation days, and the 40 hour workweek. Nothing original here, but it’s funny to hear Rogan make the case in his old-timey boss’ accent:
“Nine-to-five, nine-to-five, nine-to-five, morning, Bob; morning, Sam; nine-to-five…could you imagine?”
The clip ends with a transition to a new rant about the tactical virtues of whipping your dick out in a fist fight.
Friday Roundup, be here now
“You can’t ask for flowers– know what I mean– you either get’m or you don’t.”
–Liam Gallagher
Fall is (finally) here. This is what I’ve been up to for the first week in November:
What I’m reading:
The Killer Inside Me — Jim Thompson: A classic of neo-noir and American Crime with a forward by Stephen King. Thompson’s masterpiece (if you want to call it that) tells of a amiable small town Texas deputy with a homicidal streak. The influence of this disturbing little book is all over American Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and No Country for Old Men.
Show Your Work! — Austin Kleon: The book that ended my blogging dry-spell. Thank you, Austin!
What I’m listening to:
The story of Vice’s humble origins in Montréal on How I Built This.
A Killing on the Cape, ABC’s podcast series on the Christa Worthington murder.
Liam Gallagher’s solo album. It’s very good… Sounds more Oasis than his brother’s solo work.
Also, Liam’s Weekly Music Corner for Vice is on point.
Liam Gallagher’s Weekly Music Corner Ep. 1 (HBO)
Our new music critic, Liam Gallagher reviews new music in his debut installment of Music Critic. Today’s songs include: “Cellophane” by Metz, “Fuck Ugly God”…
What I’m Doing:
Exploring Montréal, including the city’s celebration of Leonard Cohen, which I wrote up.
Working on a novel, but I can’t talk about it yet.
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