Wait for It 🚧
Wait for It 🚧
Shuffle Sundays #27 • The Underground Railroad, Hamilton, Scalene, Wonder Tools, Anthony Ramos, Eduardo Kobra, & more!
Hello and welcome to Shuffle Sundays, a weekly curated list of content I thought was worth sharing with more people.
Shout out to Florian Maganza, from The Practical Polymath, who featured Shuffle Sundays on his latest issue. If you are one of the people coming from his newsletter, welcome and I hope you enjoy what you see around here!
🎧 Soundtrack: Lambert - False
📺 The Underground Railroad
{something to watch • tv-series • drama, history}
If you go around the internet looking for reviews for the tv adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s bestselling book The Underground Railroad, one common opinion you’ll find is that the series is both one of the best but also most painful things to watch on TV in 2021. And I couldn’t agree more.
In a nutshell, we follow the story of Cora who, after escaping a Georgia plantation, boards a train embarking on a journey seeking her freedom while being hunted by a slave catcher. Although it can be perceived as a historical piece, The Underground Railroad does a beautiful job of mixing up reality with fable, one of which being the existence of a literal railroad crossing the country under the ground.
Be prepared for some extremely difficult scenes to watch, but make sure you sit through the whole 10 episodes. Even with all its inconsistencies, it is still a very important and delicate subject we should all be reminded about.
🎬 Hamilton
{something to watch • film • musical, drama, history}
In this day and age, it’s practically impossible that you’ve never heard of the smash-hit musical Hamilton, even if that means never having succeeded in getting tickets to the Broadway show. If that’s the case, you can now at least watch a taped version available on streaming.
Created by the multi-faceted Lin-Manuel Miranda, it follows the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, but what makes it so unique, is that instead of the traditional broadway music, which you can still sometimes hear, most of the songs here are heavily influenced by hip-hop, with lots of elements of R&B, soul, and jazz.
If you are one of the people that were never interested in it purely by the hip-hop element, I urge you to get rid of all the prejudice and be open to experience something truly unique, that will certainly be remembered and revered for a long time.
And if you want to dive a bit deeper into one of the songs, make sure to check the Netflix show Song Exploder, where Lin-Manuel himself talks about the process of composing ‘Wait for It”.
🎶 Scalene - Respiro
{something to listen to • album • brazilian music}
Scalene has been one of my favorite bands from Brazil since I’ve first listened to their 2013 album Real / Surreal. But even though what grabbed my attention was the mixture of rock with elements of post-hardcore, it was the recent change in direction that got me even more interested.
In Respiro (2019) heavy guitar riffs and loud vocals gave room to more acoustic melodies and lots of genre experimentations, bringing the band closer to Brazilian rhythms like samba, bossa nova, and MPB. And the best part of it is that, following their trajectory, Respiro doesn’t sound forced or out of place, since they were already experimenting with some of these elements in some of the previous releases. Another interesting fact is that the lyrical content also didn’t change that much because of the instrumental, something that could have easily happened.
If you enjoy what you hear, make sure to also check the EP Fôlego (2020), which is a perfect follow-up to an already highlight in their discography.
🔀 On a different note:
☀️ • Jeremy Caplan sharing his Toolkit for Staying Positive, on his great newsletter Wonder Tools;
🎭 • actor Anthony Ramos on finding stardom on his own terms;
🎶 • NYC-based electronic trio Occurrence is back with the new single I Have So Much Love to Give. Here’s the music video for the track:
⚡️ Something to Inspire
Brazilian-born artist Eduardo Kobra has become one of the most recognized muralists today, with works on 5 continents, and a sensitivity to social themes and historical images. Check out his website or Instagram for more. Here are some favorites:
💽 New Music
{something to listen to • albums & singles}
This week I'm particularly interested in checking the new albums from Marisa Monte, Laura Mvula, and Dennis Lloyd. Also, new tracks from St. Vincent, Janelle Monae, Big Red Machine, Little Dragon, 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
My name is Leo Mascaro and you are receiving this email because you signed up for Shuffle Sundays, a weekly curated list of content I thought was worth sharing with more people. If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe using the box below:
If you found anything inspiring in this Newsletter, have something to share with me, or just feel like saying hello, reply to this email and let's start a conversation! Know someone who would enjoy something from this issue? Have a friend or two who is looking for some inspiration? Please share it: