Coming of Age 🧭
Hello and welcome to Shuffle Sundays, a weekly curated list of content I thought was worth sharing with more people!
Coming of Age has always been one of my favorite subjects in movies, literature, and even music. Although most of us struggle to accept the hurdles of growing old, there’s something really fascinating about following one’s journey through life. What are some of your favorite stories in the genre?
🎧 • soundtrack: Four Tet - Sexteen Oceans
🎬 Boy
{something to watch • film, 90 min}
You may know Taika Waititi from his 2019 Oscar-worthy (and controversial) Jojo Rabbit, but last year I went down a rabbit hole (no pun intended) on a journey to watch some of his earlier works, starting out with Boy (2010), his second full-length movie. And what a great start that was!
Boy is your typical coming-of-age movie, following the journey of an 11-year-old kid navigating through life and all its usual hardships. What’s lovely about this one, is that instead of the expected big city backdrop for a film like this, Boy lives on the rural East Coast of New Zealand. It’s a fun, loving, and heartwarming adventure that will have you both laughing and crying at the same time. A true hidden gem, if you’re looking to escape from the summer blockbusters around the corner.
🎧 O Terno • <atrás/além>
{something to listen to • album, 49 min}
With 4 studio albums on its baggage, O Terno has been consolidating as one of the most interesting contemporary bands in Brasil, blending indie with doses of psychedelic and garage rock, and influences from big names like The Beatles and Os Mutantes.
Even though the quality of their work has been pretty consistent from the very beginning, in 2019 they really hit the spot upon the release of <atrás/além>, featuring some experimentations with orchestral arrangements and international guests, like Devendra Banhart and Shintaro Sakamoto. It’s a beautiful dialogue (musical and lyrically) between past and present, and all the distresses of modern life. Although it was released in 2019, some of its content grew even more on me throughout the first months of the pandemic.
A perfect introduction to the band, if you’re not familiar with them, is a live performance they made for the music festival Rec-Beat, playing a set in the middle of one of the most famous viaducts in São Paulo, Brasil:
📚 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
{something to read • book, 257 pages}
Despite being familiar with David Sedaris from TV appearances and interviews, this was my first introduction to his writing in the shape of a whole book. Originally published in 2004, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a collection of 22 autobiographical essays focused on the author's upbringing in Raleigh, North Carolina, and later life events in between New York City and France.
My family isn't really all that different from anyone else's. Well, maybe they're a bit more entertaining. — David Sedaris
Dress Your Family is a light and easy reading full of deliciously humored moments that can be easily relatable to anyone who was raised in a medium-sized family. The most enjoyable part was, by having seen (and listened) to some of Sedaris’ monologues before, I could almost hear his voice narrating the stories in my head.
⚡️ Something to Inspire
Beya Rebaï is a French illustrator based in Paris, fascinated by color, especially by the artistic current of the Nabis. Check out her website or Instagram for more. Here are some favorites:
🔀 On a different note:
📸 • Photographer Erica Reade (who I featured here on issue #7) is dropping her Kickstarter campaign for her upcoming book this next Tuesday (4/13). Keep an eye on her Instagram to get all the updates;
🤯 • Sufjan Stevens announced a 5-Volume Album (49 songs) called Convocations, as an homage to his biological father, who died in September 2020. The first volume, Meditations, came out this past Friday;
🧑🏻🎤 • Alt-Pop-Rock duo Twenty One Pilots announced a new album, titled Scaled and Icy, to be released on May 21. Here’s the music video for the first single Shy Away, pointing the band in a slightly different musical direction:
💽 New Music
{something to listen to • albums & singles}
This week I'm particularly interested in checking the new albums from Boogarins, Brockhampton, Sufjan Stevens, and Yukika. Also, new tracks from Tipling Rock, Of Monsters and Men, Supercombo, Alice Merton, The Maine, and many more. If you’re curious to hear some of these songs and more, make sure to follow my 2021 playlist on Spotify, updated weekly with new releases:
👋🏼 See you next Sunday
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