For Those That Wish To Exist 💫
Shuffle Sundays #9 • Feb 28, 2021
Hello and welcome to Shuffle Sundays, a weekly curated list of content I thought was worth sharing with more people. This week I’m inaugurating a new section, where I bring a guest to share some of the content they’ve been consuming with you, it’s going to be a longer one, so let’s get started!
🎧 • soundtrack while writing this issue: Mouse On Mars - AAI
🎬 Nomadland, by Chloé Zhao
{something to watch • movie, 107 min}
Nomadland is one of those movies that, the more I think about it, the more I like it. Directed by Chloé Zhao, and starting Frances McDormand, the story goes around a woman who embarks on a journey through the American West, after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad. Mixing real-life with fictional characters, with most actors playing versions of their lives using their real names, Nomadland has a powerful narrative with a natural backdrop that will tempt you to forget about quarantine and get on the road. The backdrop, in this case, is the beautiful landscape of the west coast of the US and some of its famous deserts and national parks. I’m not sure I could ever adapt to van-life, but there’s no question on how tempting it looks like.
Part of me wanted to understand a little more of all of the reasons for Fern (McDormand) to be living like that. What exactly was she chasing, looking for? But aren’t we all going through life more or less like that? We have the impression that people around us have all figured out, but that’s so far from reality.
While watching the movie, I couldn’t stop thinking how weird is the lifestyle that those people have chosen to live, abnegating their past lives and comfort. But in the end, I realized that those of us who chose to leave our hometown and chase a different life far away, are not that much different from the nomads portrayed in the movie. Deep inside it’s a constant battle with our past, present, and future, in a way that our families and close friends may not ever understand all the reasons behind our choices.
In a way, we are all nomads in our own land.
🤘🏼Architects - For Those That Wish To Exist
{something to listen to • album, 58 min}
It took me 9 albums to finally fall in love with the British metalcore band Architects. I can’t say that I enjoy all of their releases, but this new one, For Those That Wish To Exist, was one of my most anticipated of the year and already one of my favorites of 2021. They had my full attention since the release of Animals, the first single of the record, about 4 months ago, together with the beautiful and intriguing album cover.
This is definitely not for everyone, especially if you’re not into heavier music, but I promise it will be a powerful journey if you wish to take it. There are 15 tracks, running for almost 1 hour, and it’s one of those cases where an uninterrupted listening from the first to the very last track makes for a truly rewarding experience.
With a central theme around a global climate catastrophe, that we all see it coming but do little about it, For Those That Wish To Exist is a perfect blend of old and new sounds explored by the band on what has been referred to as a fresh start in their discography. It’s heavy, it’s dense, it’s aggressive, but it’s also full of beautiful contemplative moments in between.
📣 Shuffle Guest: Ciyadh Wells
About a month ago Ciyadh Wells released an episode of her podcast (Musically Cogitating) called What to do about Black History Month, which was really eye-opening to me, where she openly discusses how brands and companies have been treating Black History Month over the years. I spent the whole month thinking about dedicating an issue of this Newsletter to feature the work of African-Americans, but changed my mind and decided that the best thing I could do was to bring Ciyadh herself to share some of her recommendations with us. That being said, I couldn’t be more excited to inaugurate this guest section with her!
🗣 » Tell us a bit about you: Hello! My name is Ciyadh Wells. I’m a guitarist, podcaster, and salad enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. My personal mission is to utilize the impact of music old and new to manifest moments of meaningful change. I direct the Margins Guitar Collective. When I’m doing none of those things, I’m probably switching note-taking apps and staying up way too late. You can find more about whatever it is that I do here. Since this is coming to you on the last day of Black History Month, I decided that I wanted to share my favorite things that I consumed that were created by Black people over the past month:
🎧 » Music: I’m a guitarist so I’m a bit biased in my first recommendation here but Meshell Ndegeocello’s NPR Tiny Desk is one of my favorite performances that I’ve seen in a while. There’s something about the way that she tells a story that makes it seem as though she’s speaking directly to you. Some other new releases that I enjoyed this month include R+R=Now, Robert Glasper's supergroup, and George Lewis’s The Recombinant Trilogy.
📚 » Book: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. I’ll admit that I’m not usually a person who is into speculative fiction or science fiction. I assumed most science fiction stories were retellings of aliens coming to earth and sucking all us humans into their spaceships. I was wrong. Kindred is the story of how Dana, the protagonist, is transported back and forth between the present-day 1970s and slavery at a moment’s notice to save the life of the story’s antagonist, Tom. It has quickly become one of my favorite books.
🎙 » Podcast: My latest obsession is coffee. From videos to Instagram pages to articles, coffee and its origins have dominated my digital inboxes and queues. Naturally, my first inquiry was to find a Black-owned coffee roaster. I was delighted to find The Cxffeeblack Podcast whose slogan is ‘make coffee Black again’. Their latest episode about their 1616 coffee blend and project is great.
📰 » Article: Even before the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020, there have been many calls for inclusivity in classical music. Classical music isn’t really known for being a welcoming community. Article co-authors Jessie Montgomery and Renée Baker share their ideas about the future of diversity in Classical music. Click here to read.
🔀 On a different note:
🏆 Tonight is the Golden Globes (8 PM EST) and there’s still time to check out the Notion free template I created to track all the nominees! Click here to download it.
✍🏼 This past week marked the 300th day in a row that I wrote as a daily habit! Click here to read about my journey!
💽 Some new music released this past week
{something to listen to • albums & singles}
Another week full of releases, I'm particularly interested in checking the new albums from Adrian Younge, Architects, Julien Baker, and Mouse On Mars. Also, great new tracks from Leon Bridges, Cautious Clay, Dawes, Son Lux, Ben Howard, Amen Jr., 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:
⚡️ Something to Inspire
Nigerian-born, Texas-based Multidisciplinary Artist Temi Coker has a style that never ceases to amaze me. Check his Website and Instagram for more. Here are some favorites:
👋🏼 Say Hi & Thank You for Reading! 🙌🏼
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