Links / Youtube
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I don’t know why this happened at the office of The New York Times, but here we are. Erykah Badu hasn’t released an album in forever, and it doesn’t matter. Look at her aura as she floats into the room; you wouldn’t dare ask her why. The performance is just about flawless.
Currently, she’s celebrating the 25th anniversary of her landmark album Mama’s Gun. Perhaps someday soon, that album she made with The Alchemist will see the light of day.
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I very much enjoyed this two-hour mix by Caribou, Floating Points and their intern, Fred Again.., who had me at the drumless version of Earl Sweatshirt’s “Chum”.
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Did you know birdwatching is a competitive sport? I didn’t. I’ve downloaded Merlin Bird ID, but that’s about it.
This funny, somewhat obnoxious, and very well made two-hour documentary does a great job diving into the subculture. When I started watching it I thought "I’ll probably finish this over a day or two", but I couldn’t stop watching it.
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You Need to Be Bored
№ 98Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor, explains why boredom helps you be more creative, and less depressed. I feel like this is common knowledge, but it seems like we—as humans—are less and less capable of allowing boredom into our lives. This video was a helpful reminder of why doing so is a good thing.
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Tyler, The Creator sat down with a group of creatives to have a candid conversation about creativity, taking chances, and believing in the things you make. I must’ve watched this two weeks ago and—despite the sponsored element to this—found it very inspiring (as I do all of his output in recent years; Tyler is one of the artists I admire the most).
I loved how he mentioned the shift he noticed in how people perceived him, once he put “all songs written, produced and arranged by Tyler Okonma” on his album covers. It feels like his creative output has been unmatched since then.
How he created, marketed and released his latest album Don’t Tap The Glass—while on a worldwide tour of over 100 shows—is a testament to that.
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Elliott Jay Stocks, who I’ve followed ever since he did 8 Faces, shared a great few nerdy typographic nuggets in his talk at Config 2025. Product Designers, take note.
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I’ve not watched any other videos about the Vision Pro because I will not buy the goggles and I’ve been somewhat sceptical of this product direction, but Casey Neistat’s video does an excellent job of showing what it’s like to use this thing in real life, and gets across well the hints it provide at a future with spatial computing. It’s… kind of exciting?
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I’ve been replaying James Blake’s latest album “Playing Robots Into Heaven” somewhat obsessively, and was reminded of this conversation he had with Brian Eno, for who he plays the music and who then provides him with his honest impression.
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“ChatGPT rejects any notion of creative struggle.” Nick Cave’s elaborate and thorough answer to questions about ChatGPT and creativity, written on his Red Hand Files blog, read aloud by Stephen Fry.
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As I watched Jerrod Carmichael’s latest special Rothaniel – which is really, really special – I was reminded of this conversation he had with Tyler, The Creator back in 2018. An interview unlike any other, and I’ve thought about it often since I first saw it.