I’m fascinated by the particular ways people make themselves at home in their space, and maybe it’s mostly stemmed from how particularly I live in mine. What do you mean you don’t have a specific spoon stored on the left side of your coffee maker? Your bowls and plates are on that side of the stove?! My friends and I compared the order of our showers the other day and we were cracking up at the difference in our routines.

We all live a daily series of “muscle memories” that then make up our entire lives. I still have moments out of habit where I turn from my stove to the right, where my sink was located two apartments ago. My sink is to the left of the stove now, but it’s like I still feel at home in all my old layouts of living. Considering that our brains are a type of home for us too, what things occupy space in your mind that other people wouldn’t even make room for on a single shelf (metaphorically speaking)? And what sticks permanently in your head no matter how much time passes?

I have an entire room in my head set aside for musical theater lyrics. I saw two shows on Broadway when I was just in NYC, and upon arriving home I went to the movie theaters to see the Hadestown pro-shot. At all three, I marveled (as I always do) at the talent required for live performances. Watching professional recordings of theater always takes my appreciation to a new level because I can see the actors’ effort materialize up close. I enjoy catching all the tiny facial expressions between scene partners, creative decisions that they must know the live audience can’t catch from far away. Yet they give it their all anyway — second nature to a good performer.

The mere memorization of lyrics and lines is enough to impress me. And as I hyperfixated on Hadestown in the days following my trip to the theater (because holy sh*t the pro-shot was SO so so well done!), I realized how many of the lyrics were actually locked into my own brain as well. I’ve listened to this musical for years, but I never noticed or acknowledged the moment when the words made a permanent home in my brain. It’s funny how a specific work of art is irrelevant to most people (most of my friends have never even heard of Hadestown) but so special to me that it’s etched into my memory.

Somewhere along the way of just enjoying ourselves and paying attention to what we like, we create a designated place for each thing that has delighted us. Just like our actual home, our taste becomes the way we live. Muscle memory, but with art.

(It also makes your mind a really pleasant and peaceful place to be — a welcomed side effect to art appreciation.)

this week’s favorites & finds:

Sterling Point (new on Amazon Prime). This!!! This is the summer show I was waiting for!! The secrets and suspense had me hooked so fast by episode 1, with a perfectly shot lake setting and charismatic characters that actually talk like real people. I liked the main actress soooo much. This is the first thing I’ve watched in a while that isn’t a book adaptation — it was just written for tv, and I think you can feel that in the show. It feels creative and original!

The music in the show is notably great. I mean look at this list of songs !!!

A collection of Lennon / Maisy Stella covers created for the show was an extremely niche way to make me love it more. This Patti Griffin cover played over one of the most beautiful parts of the show. The second I heard Lennon’s voice, my ears perked up. It’s a niche throwback — does anyone remember them in that Nashville show? Their Boom Clap cover that I never stopped playing in 2015?

(My beloved Wishes by Tiny Habits made the soundtrack cut as well ?!?!)

The Dakota Johnson cameo in Role Model’s new album. I’m obsessed with the vibes here. This whole album is pure Sally energy, but better quality.

Like I said, Dakota’s flirty speaking voice in Love I You is so fun. I get the best feeling from Harmony - a wonderful album closer. And I really really love the concept articulated in The Wedding:

How sweet to realize at a wedding
That all hope ain't lost on me?
Safe to say that I finally might get it
The fantasy

Last night, I told myself that I'm never getting married, no
Last night, I thought I knew, oh, no, no
Black tie, string lights, and the image of the bride getting carried
That night, they sold me too
Saying, "I do"

Speaking of weddings, I love Stop The Wedding! too. (Ironically, an opposite concept from the above.) Thrilled to have a new Ashe song!! Cleverly written, as her stuff always is. The visual world is off the charts. So excited to see what else she puts out soon!

Speaking of Hadestown, this quote from the show?! Gives me goosebumps. You have to see it!

It’s a sad song
But we sing it anyway
‘Cause here’s the thing:
To know how it ends
And still begin to sing it again
As if it might turn out this time
I learned that from a friend of mine.

p.s. i don’t wanna move on!

Along the lines of my previous reflection on city life and how many constant options there are in today’s day and age, I’ve been thinking about how we (I) plough through art at a wild pace. In a way, it fits into my thoughts above too — the things that matter stick with us only if we give them time to do so. To consume too much is as exciting as it is sometimes unfortunate.

My dad and I like to share music with each other and whenever I send him something (which, as you can imagine, is a lot), he always says he’s “not ready for it yet”. He’s used to digesting music an album at a time, just like he did in the 80s and 90s with vinyls and CDs — listening for months on end before he could even consider moving onto the next thing.

I’ll admit, it may be an impossible undertaking for me to not listen to everything all the time. So much good stuff is being released every week! But it has made me look back on some of the art that I’ve loved. Did I sit with it long enough? What else does it have for me? I’ve been revisiting some favorites from the past few years, and I’m enjoying the experience of returning to them and lingering, especially with full albums like the still mind-blowing RAYE and even a Tortured Poets return (It’s actually wild how good that album is. I’m looking closer at the lyrics now and it’s like reading Shakespeare. Intricate and insane.)

What music (or movie or show or book or whatever) could you go back to today to just give it another go? See what really stuck and what might be still be hiding inside it?

Thanks for reading on a Monday! Hope your week ahead is full of all good things, especially your favorite ones.

speaking of old favorites:

speaking of music memory:

Hello from me & my keyboard, where my brain does its best thinking. I’m post-long weekend in New York City — my first time going! For the graphic design alone for my eyes to feast on, the plane ticket was well worth it.

New York is pretty much the opposite of my daily life in the Midwestern suburbs, at least at face value. The thing I find so interesting (and maybe disorienting) about any city environment is how moments change basically with every block. One moment you’re in the BEST spot — a sun-kissed blanket in Central Park, a prime table on the street with a drink in your hand, clapping your hands at the end of a dazzling theater performance. Just as quickly as that moment finds you, it drops you off in a very opposite feeling — blistered feet, air mattresses, shoulder-to-shoulder subway strangers, anxiety-inducing volume levels, tiny bathrooms. The amount of friction and fun remain equal, tossed quickly back and forth in your hands (and very much felt in the balls of your feet).

If I’m not mistaken, this is what people love about life in the city. The high highs and low lows. But does it take metro living to be familiar with the juggle of friction and fun? It may take a different shape, but every life in every location is flooded with both kinds of moments: “if I could just get through this” and “I hope this never ends!!!”

Both are fleeting; the fun is treasured as long as possible and the friction is endured as long as needed. Both also become better when lived with a happy shrug of the shoulders. We all do ourselves a favor to fully accept (and better yet to marvel at!) just how much we get to experience in a single day, let alone a single life.

I often (maybe subconsciously) approach travel as a search for “other ways to live”. If I’m super honest, it’s less curiosity and more fear — a fear that maybe I’m getting myself stuck. That maybe I’m not doing enough, and that maybe going somewhere else might let me off the hook; after all, I might have a grand realization that it’s my home environment that is the problem! I couldn’t possibly live the way I want under *these* conditions!

What I observed in NYC was more. More opportunities to talk to strangers, more restaurants and coffee shops to try, more reasons to be excitedly social or to walk a lot, more ways to get inspired. All things I do want more of, but struggle to make space for at home.

It’s not my fault! I tell myself. It must just be easier (more fun, more natural, more inevitable) to live that way over there.

Yet as I flew back to my familiar home airport, drove my car through my town (the bliss of a Kroger! drive-thrus! back roads!), unpacked my bags in my room, and made myself a coffee the way I do everyday, I thought of the million other ways I could be doing all of it — the ones I observed in the city. And none of them were really what I wanted.

I like my coffee the way I make it, maybe even more than the great ones I had in the city. I like the way my nightstand is arranged. I like the walking path I’ve nailed down around my neighborhood. I like the people I see here. There are plenty of places to go, restaurants and long menus I couldn’t possible get through, and strangers to talk to. There’s a laundry list of friction and an even longer list of fun moments that I wish would never end.

I do want to be stretched, curious, and challenged, but I want it to be in my life, not anyone else’s. And my life has already given me what I need! It’s as abundant with options and activities and inspiration as I let it be — how do I always forget?!

As a relentlessly self-proclaimed homebody, I should be more honest with myself that I do love to travel for this exact reason. Just a weekend away is enough to shake me out of my comfort zone, in which I’ve made quite a cozy home for myself. By stepping out for even a second, I can see how interesting the world is “out there” and in turn, see how interesting my world is right here.

Travel is like any other art form in the way it gives us new eyes to see true things like that. I’m thinking of the new perspective as an invisible souvenir!

xoxo love you, New York!

this week’s favorites & finds

Gracie’s album is actually reallyyy hitting. It came out the Friday of my NY weekend, which immediately tied it to the travel memory, which I love. Gracie accompanied my early morning plane rides and long afternoon laying in the park people-watching. So maybe I’m biased by those environments, primed for focused listening, but I love so many of these songs! (But yeah, now that I think about it, that is one of my favorite little music experiences - when a new release times up with a trip!)

Broke My Heart and Humming are laced with Justin Vernon (always a win) and the second Minibar started I could tell it was co-written by Audrey Hobert. And OMG I love that girl. Moody, catchy, lyrical word salad — this album has everything I want.

Random, but these are some individual songs that I’ve been keeping in the loop lately:

lyric game is wow / this whole album is honestly amazing / cutie song I can’t get out of my head

read this!

This article is GREAT. Along the same lines as my thoughts above, a perfectly written list for reflecting on your own daily life as it is and whether it’s measuring up to be what you want it to be (way more simple than it seems!) —

Surely the human race has lots of experience living, and people have figured out lots of things before us. So I understand the pull towards philosophy, religion, and other enduring world views for what a good life is. The problem is not looking to these life approaches for guidance. The problem is—like Dorothy walking around like an idiot with teleportation shoes on her feet—that we forget to look to the one person with the most power in these situations: ourselves.

We are the judge, jury, (and executioner?! wordplay kind of fell apart there…) of the most important metric of all:

“Am I enjoying my life?”

What Work Should Be

11 ways to know you're doing life right

We just returned from two weeks in Europe with friends, riding ponies in England, enjoying sobremesas in Portugal, wondering if Patatas Bravas means “Great job, potatoes!” in Spain…

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a month ago · 77 likes · 21 comments · Bree Groff

I can’t stop thinking about what this priest in NYC said:

At the church I visited over the weekend, the priest said something along this sentiment in his sermon:

You can study water all you want. You can read about water and figure out how it works and what it’s made of. But unless you jump in a pool or wade out into the ocean, you can’t know what it’s really like. Unless you stay in the water, you may forget what it feels like. That’s how God is, and with Him everything else. Rather than trying to know more (God, people in your life, life itself) so you can love, love more and you will know.

(um, fire?!?!?!)

random movie rec? just really quick…

Last week I showed my brother one of my favorite movies of all time, Instant Family. (I live with my little brother, another thing I like about my life. He gets the gift of forced-ish exposure to my endless favorites, even more than you guys.)

This movie should be wayyy more well-known. It’s a hilarious, beautiful depiction of the complicated dynamics of foster care, adoption, and family life. I quite literally have tears in my eyes the whole time, either from the humor or the heart or both at once. My brother did give a rave review at the end, saying he “doubted me” (typical) but that it was “easily 5 stars.” What can I say! I have lots of favorites for a reason!

I never hear anyone talking about Instant Family, so I had to mention it. It’s packed with people you probably know from one thing or another — Mark Wahlberg, Octavia Spencer, Joan Cusack (Jessie <3), Tig Notaro, Valente Rodriguez, and Margo Martindale (you know her as Hannah Montana’s grandma, haha!)

Lots in my brain, lots in my headphones!

Wishing you an abundant day in your life just as it is. Lots of healthy friction and great fun — and then the same thing tomorrow.

Thanks for reading! I love it here.

Happy long weekend!!! Woo!

I’m grabbing the virtual aux today and queuing up some music I just need you to know about. If you’re on my wavelength ever when it comes to music, I promise this lineup is soooooo good.

this week’s favorites & finds

Ryan Beatty. STAR of the week !!!

Calico is hands down one of the greatest albums of all time. But here’s Sweet Fortune now just matching and multiplying it. Every line he writes is art — a wordy melodic bliss!

This is the kind of music that’s so perfectly soft that you almost have to blast it. I want to swim around in all the harmonies. (Clairo provides BGV and that’s how you know it’s good.)

Phantom is one of the best album openers I’ve ever heard. Ascending with every key change.

“Letting go of what you hold holds you just the same,” gives me chills in Virtuoso.

“A little sugar in the bitter.” Too Many Ways is romantic, but I also can’t help but think of all the people I love scattered across the globe when I listen to this song. I loved tracing the web of feelings & bouncing place to place inside the lyrics. A song about long-distance and the bittersweet sides of having a very full life of love.

“Chip the paint off the white picket dream,” in Fleur De Lis is so tactile, I love it. “I’ll throw seeds and reap what I sow, cause in the dirt, all my flowers will grow.”

“I love New York, I hate New York.
I’m brave enough to say hey, I go back and forth.
I love to sing, I hate the sport.” – Dust.

Yeah, wow.

Following the trail of soft music similar to Ryan, I’m back on a complete Tiny Habits kick. I need everyone to know about these guys!!!

This trio of (crispppp) vocals truly form one singular voice in the most mesmerizing way. I cannot get enough. Their music is genuinely stunning — as in like, I’m stunned! When I listen to it, I find myself immediately calming down, immediately humming along to the harmonies. It’s made the best companion to some slower summer moments.

Their new music coming out is WOW. Matty Healy secret vocals in this song?!

Their complete discography is equally wonderful. There are my all time favorites, like Hemenway and Wishes. But I’ve also found myself turning to some others that I never gave full attention to before, like Planting Flowers and Salt & Sand.

I really love their album titles and imagery. They use the most perfectly specific words (like mudroom and flicker and pennies) which builds the kind of word culture (is that a thing?) that I want to live in. Add in all the fuzzy visuals and I’m just obsessed.

This feature with Joe Jonas is great. This one with Alessia Cara, also insane. I put Tiny Habits’ full discography together here if you’re interested! (Trust!!)

Okay, what a random gift: Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas. This song is actually GREAT.

It got me back on another Noah great, that amidst the 2026 Ella craze must not be overlooked:

honorable mentions

Speaking of Noahs, I saw Noah Kahan live this week and I couldn’t help but notice how many people were singing his new songs even louder than the old ones. I get giddy for him thinking about how he managed to follow up his huge Stick Season virality with art that still really resonates, both with him and us. Such a humble, deserving artist seriously.

“That’s the greatest thing you could have as a person who makes music and as a person that listens to it, when you feel like we’re both living in the same world.” [Noah]

And an unexpected live lyric addition to Orbiter — “I wish I had a way to raise the dead” in a sort of haunting echo at the end of the song. LOVED. Copy, moon tears.

I finally finished Isabel Klee’s book, which I know I’ve mentioned a few times now. Probably my favorite memoir I’ve read like, ever.

Isabel’s writing has that specific ability to make you simultaneously fascinated by how different her life is than yours while also providing language for your shared experiences. Must read (and probably listen too, the audiobook was awesome).

5 thousand stars!

Happy 4th / happy weekend / happy art hunting / happy life!

More of my thoughts on Noah Kahan’s newest music ↓

Thanks for loving & reading & creating with me! ↓

I met my best friend through work in design & marketing, so from the very start we’ve either been creating or talking relentlessly about creating whenever we’re together. I realized quickly that she had an artist’s brain like mine — lots of thoughts and ideas, lots of time needed to process said thoughts and ideas. On one of my first trips to visit her, we carved out an hour of silence in our busy week together to do just that.

I had looked up the word “inspiration” as we sat in the small chapel near her restful Charleston neighborhood. All day we’d been passing back and forth the dreams we had, the art we wanted to make, and (mostly) agonizing over the motivation we lacked to actually freaking do it.

Below the obvious definition (“the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something”), read the more standard scientific description:

"the drawing in of breath"

“Isn’t that just so good?!” I said to her from the passenger seat, but she was already bursting in agreement. Her artist’s brain knew the exact meaning I was deriving from these words — the universal internal language of the creative life.

When do you feel most like yourself?

This is likely what most inspires you. For me, one surefire way to feel like myself is to listen intently to music that I like.

My detail-obsessed brain thrives as I go searching for the instruments tucked into the background. I devour a good artist backstory. I read along with lyrics like studying poetry. As I go deeper and deeper into the art, it feels like my own taste and personality materializes in front of me.

I like this. I feel this. I think this. I cannot get enough of this. This is so ME!

It does, it puts a pep in my step. I feel physically energized by the things that I like.

Music, writing, film, songwriting, color, poetry, painting, fashion, design. I was just telling someone recently that it doesn’t really matter what form it takes — it’s pretty rare (impossible even?) for me to have a lack of inspiration.

I mean, all Pinterest users can relate; is finding inspiration really anyone’s problem? We have a plethora of noise at this point (albeit a lot of good noise!) to spark our interest or give us our next idea. Something we want to try, something we want to make, something we want to be. (Dare I say, we may even be *addicted* to the amount of aspirational, hypothetical living that we’ve deemed a necessity for our creativity…)

I guess I’ll just speak for myself: I’ve gotten great at thinking about what to do and how to be, instead of actually doing and being.

And though it is essential to “fill the well,” as The Artist’s Way so perfectly defines the act of noticing and appreciating and getting inspired, there does come a point in the endless collecting when my brain reaches max capacity and my eyes just start to hurt. I notice a tangible discomfort arise in me as I heap piles and piles of inspiration on top of myself, until one day I can’t seem to move under the weight of it. I push and shove my way around my own imagination. What was supposed to help me be more creative is now leaving me uncomfortably antsy, like my body took in the amount of possibility and is now choking on it.

Honestly, it’s killing any and all “vibes” that I so intricately collected on my vision boards.

That language for inspiration (“a drawing in of breath”) has unlocked for me a proper diagnosis for this discomfort. The disconnect in my creative life: I woke up one day genuinely needing to be inspired. I sought out a huge range of things that excited me and motivated me. I needed a deep inhale, and I found it!

And then I held my breath.

It’s always been a two-step process.

Breathe in, breathe out.

We’ve all become pretty aware that a constant output could never be sustainable. Get inspired! Get inspired! the world screams at us on the daily. Sure, you definitely can’t breathe with no air in your lungs.

But when you inhale and hold your breath, you’re still in terrible shape.

Inspiration itself is an active thing, scientifically and creatively. “That inspired me” is synonymous to “that moved me” because it’s true: great art sets us in motion. As opposed to that suffocating, rotting, frustrating feeling, inspiration has this paradoxical power to calm and charge us all at once. It feels like magic! Giant waves of relief followed by blasts of caffeine. Inspiration resonates where we are and then nudges us in the next right direction, be it forward or back or sideways.

It begs us to let ourselves be moved. Getting ourselves to do so might just be our greatest duty as creative people. Taking the action. Releasing. Breathing out.

Inspiration prepares. It expands and fills. It stretches and increases pressure, but only to allow for an effortless release.

(I’m also liking “stored elastic potential energy” — no idea what that means but it feels fitting to the metaphor.)

If you are a creative person, you don’t need me to unpack these words for you. Like I said, it’s the universal internal language of the creative life. You probably read the words “expand” and “stretch” and recognize them in your own mind and body. “Increased pressure” is definitely a familiar thing. And hopefully, you’ve experienced the fulfilling feeling of an “effortless release”.

Yes, inspiration should create an effortless flow for our creativity. Not effortless as in easy or simple (creativity is rarely either), but effortless as in natural.

As in: I was made to do this.

Or: I’m having fun (!) doing this.

And a real sticky one: This doesn’t have to be unenjoyable or painful to matter.

Release some of that pent-up creative energy, starting with a single exhale. Whatever that thing is that you’ve felt inspired to do, take action! Do it small, even for five minutes. Say it out loud. Let it happen. Make it happen! (And let it be FUN, omg.)

By action I do not mean an act of productivity or achievement. Sometimes, maybe. Think more so acts of play, experimentation, process, or appreciation. Creativity is less like being a machine and much more like being a sailboat, letting the art blow you gently to the next right thing. My most gratifying moments of release have even been in simply opening myself up and sharing what inspires me with someone else, multiplying the delight in a moment of connection instead of consuming in isolation. I continually need to remember how great that feels! It’s always worth it to go where I’m being nudged to go.

Again, this is not necessarily easy. Healthy lungs are still working quite hard; it’s a complicated process to inhale and exhale a breath. But they were designed to do it. Effortlessly!

And so were we, artists. Made to do this! To be filled by the world, to fill the world, repeat. I dream of living (and not just thinking about living) in a world of healthy creative people, receiving and releasing. Breathing deep, both ways.

Thanks for reading!

I’ll be here, still making mood boards and collecting all the things, but also hopefully breathing deeper while I do so.

(Metaphorically & otherwise.)

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in other words

Below is one of my first Substack essays, and maybe my favorite thing I’ve ever written. Another metaphor, also about art (bc, duh) ↓

There’s something about summer that feels like enjoyment on a feedback loop. Action followed by a release, repeat until August. Big swells of Friday night laughter, released into a long night’s sleep with no plans the next day. An adventurous weekend away, released into a long week of normal work days.

And right when you have a few routine days in a row enjoying iced drinks and comfy colorful shorts at your desk (just me? a WFH girl through and through…), the calendar books up with things you actually want to do and you’re off to the races of savoring as many seconds of this season as you can.

So, in honor of these simple, enjoyable days of summer, here is a fun switch up — a simple, enjoyable summer roundup!

favorites & finds of the week (ish)

1. Tori delivered with her album. Been LOVING!

2. Happy news! New Tiny Habits by the end of summer. <3 Love the cover.

3. Alert! Best pen ever. Sharpie S-Gel. 0.7 for my scribblers. (Proudly returning to messy scratch pad meeting notes with this in my hand vs. the AI summary that no one ever reads anyway. I swear my brain is stronger than ever!)

4. Serious addiction. The can design and everything.

5. Just printed this (free!) Elie Pavil artwork for my apartment. Never too late to keep decorating! Reminder that awesome public domain artwork exists to fill your walls.

6. My current non-fiction read. My bestie is moving to New York for the summer, so I’m channeling that energy over to my Midwestern summer.

7. Anddd my favorite pool bag book from last summer. (I saw that a Carley Fortune TV show just came out, but I’m giving you permission to skip that and go straight to this perfect read instead.)

8. Sourdough is yet again the hobby of the summer. The warm weather speeds up the process, so it’s a perfect time to learn. My group chat approved of my last loaf!

9. Big summer candy supply currently on route to my house.

10. Berry stamp from Hobby Lobby sparking some serious paper joy. Officially also picking up pen-pal-ing (?) as a summer activity.

honorable mentions

duh!!! I’ll never skip a few extra finds!

Celebrity Substitute is one of my favorite things to watch on the internet. I am obsessed with it, as am I obsessed with everything Matt and Bowen.

(Rachel Zegler at the Las Culturistas awards - also got me!)

Underrated song with blissful summer energy:

My warmer weather playlist!

HAGS!

[have a great summer!!!]

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I’m the person staying seated for the movie credits, listening to the film score play and watching the names scroll up on the black screen. It feels like a game to spot the various jobs within the crew, half of which I never even knew existed.

I now specifically look for the graphic design roles; from 9-5 everyday, I create and iterate and tweak and edit as a graphic designer myself. A lot of my day is spent in the weeds. (I *love* being in the weeds.) And every day, I get a better understanding of how exciting life can be behind the scenes — life in “the credits.”

This can be a hard pill to swallow: that no amount of explanation can translate all the little choices, scrapped ideas, and problems solved throughout a creative process. Besides, the task of anyone behind the scenes is not to tell everyone what they’re doing back there. It’s to truly stand behind (!) the project and hold it up from underneath. Truthfully, if I do my job right, my many explanations don’t matter in the end. In any great thing, the efforts of the team are not displayed, but embedded inside the quality of the work itself.

Of course, my branding / marketing brain is writing what it knows. I can only imagine (I obviously do imagine!) the amount of time and energy that goes into one movie, one album, one book, one performance. Not to mention all the other non-creative careers out there!

(One of my best friends works on a naval submarine as a supply chain officer. When we get nosy and ask her about all the “big things” happening on the sub, she always laughs and brushes us off: “I just make sure everyone has 1) what they need to do their work and 2) dinner when they’re done.”)

If you look closely enough at any form of art and storytelling, you’ll catch glimpses of all the ideas and iterations and hopes that will never fully be seen.

Most of all, you’ll find the people hidden behind those things — driving home with those ideas swirling in their head of how to do their job even better tomorrow. Individual people showing up and working hard, in hopes that the results of their trying will transcend the moment and become a part of what makes the work matter in the end.

Think of it this way ↓

A singer performs; they play an instrument tuned by someone else, in an outfit pieced together by a stylist, in that clip that we scrolled right past online — the one for which the videographer mastered their equipment and trained their eye to capture the moment. Oh also, a talented colorist colored that video and a graphic designer chose the typeface that went on top. Oh also, the lighting and sound for the show was monitored carefully by a team of trained individuals. Oh also, someone made sure everyone ate before the show. Oh also, all of those people had assistants. (Probably more than one.)

You get it!

This is one of my favorite things about art and culture: the amount of people it takes to make something. My natural artist’s response is to fight for all of this unseen effort and bring it out of hiding, hence my relentless ranting about the things that I like to everyone around me: “You don’t even realize what it took to make this!!!”

But, isn’t that the miracle of it? Many small things passing beautifully as one thing. That’s magic!

Today I’m just appreciating the assistant to the assistant, the one noticing what they are relied upon to notice. Caring deeply about doing their part of things, and feeling proud when great work gets done because of it.

And I guess I’m also affirming you, if you see this growing world of influencing and front-facing creativity, and still feel an itch to be behind-the-scenes and be an artist without any eyes on you — do it!!! It’s a very worthy use of your creativity, to use your talents on a team, on something that isn’t “yours” in the typical way.

If you need me, I’ll be back here too. Likely hyperfixating on well-placed text, swimming (drowning?) in pixels, and tweaking graphics until everything is just right.

Art (much like everything else) is rarely a solo endeavor. We need every single person on “stage” and off. Look close, you’ll see all of our names in the credits one day!

P.S. I loved this video. A cool example of someone you’d never see that makes important things happen!

favorites & finds of the week(ish)

Jon Bellion Live from Forest Hills is blowing me away. Pure prodigy! The visuals of the YouTube version are awesome.

Talk about a strong collaborator — his stage was full of talented people! Sure, Jon’s name is the one on the tickets and his vision is the genius starting point, but he is nothing without this group of artists executing that vision. I mean, the musicians’ abilities to match the melodies he presents to them in a spontaneous moment is AMAZING!

Blast this, watch it like a true at-home concert, or throw it up huge on your TV next time you’re working or cleaning or whatever. Love!!

THIS ONE! ↓

Jaw is on the floor when the Jackson 5 hits:

The Sheep Detectives was an unexpected favorite from the theater recently! Admittedly, halfway through I had accepted this as a simple family movie with a cheesy vibe. Andddd then by the end, my eyes were blurry.

A beautiful little piece of art about the role that memory plays in grieving and loving each other. And honestly, a reminder that paying close attention to the details, especially in the people we love, does make a difference. When hard times come, those details will be the things that we cling to!

honorable mentions

Back to my RAYE admiration (it’s still prominent!): I love how she’s ended both of her albums with a list of names of everyone that worked on the project.

This SONG. Ryan Beatty, we missed you!!!

It’s full-on summer, so it’s full-on Jonas Brothers season. This live album is the way to maximize their warm weather energy. Skip to minute 2:35 of the live Leave Before You Love Me for a niche moment of bliss. Those backup singers are crisppp.

The Taylor Swift x Randy Newman collab had me all teary. Iconic. In addition to the new Taylor song (duh), I’m now rewatching the Toy Story movies and listening to this and crying about the amazing people in my life:

Favorites from Olivia’s album — begged (finally!), purple, and what’s wrong with me. Loving this Robert Smith moment for her.

more fun reading

Extension of the joy of being on a great crew:

Prodigies like Jon that you need to know about:

Happy Saturday! I hope your day is wide open to do whatever you want!!!

Hello June!!!

Both of my best friends turned 27 in May, another one of those not-so-coincidental details of a fun life. I had the best time these last few weeks celebrating my people and welcoming in the energy of summer.

May ending means that the calendar starts flying by at 2x speed. But these summer days are the BEST! I’m, like, forcefully digging my feet into the present moment; I’m determined not to let June slip out of my fingers too fast! I keep looking around every room of people I’m in and feeling more aware of all the paths crossing. And there’s only more of that to come this month — weddings, trips, pools, dinners outside, the summer music?! June, I’m READY!

the favorites & finds of the week(ish)

Yes, of course I watched the Keke Palmer x Sean Evans episode — eyes GLUED to my screen. Now this is joy! I’m as in love with these two as they (clearly) are with each other. I need more!!!

But speaking of Keke — which these days we always are — her recent TED Talk was even more incredible!

“Survival can be so effective, you don’t realize when it’s no longer serving you.” In Keke’s life, performing was a literal way to survive; her acting career got her family out of poverty. But she cuts to the reality of it fast — how our coping skills often seep into our daily lives and personalities. “I began designing a character to survive my life.” In some way, we all do it: craft characters for ourselves. For better or worse, we perform and produce constantly. We put on personas like armor to conquer the situations we’re in. What often starts off as a good thing (a desire to help, to lighten the mood, to lighten the load), can become a trap.

“It’s like a computer — it works great, so you never turn it off. You don’t even let it restart for updates, so you never know just how much better it could be. That was me: a billboard for hyper-functioning.”

Where does the ‘performance’ start and end? Somewhere along the way, we forget to just live! To let ourselves off the hook a little. I was so moved by the way Keke explained her own experience of this. I’ve always admired her charisma and her constant motion. Now seeing what sits beneath that — her own desire to become more herself “on stage” and off — only makes me respect her more. I want to follow her in this direction of letting ourselves be freer!

“My parents showed me how to survive. I showed them how to dream. My son is showing me how to live.”

You know that anyone who holds humor in one hand and depth in the other is the kind of wise person I trust. Keke (Lauren!) is that kind of multi-faceted thinker and artist. Must watch!!!

P.S. In case you’ve never seen it, this post’s title comes from one of Keke’s most iconic moments, see here.

Maisie Peters!!! Her new album is proof that music for the 2000s rom com girl is alive and well. The very productive girl who also jots down dramatic (in the best way) poems on post-its on her desk. The music behind a montage of days passing in a flash. A few storied ballads for the low points and a lightweight song that she blasts in her best moments.

When you hear Florescence, you’ll know what I mean. Think Manic Monday meeting the 1989 vault songs. A Colbie Caillet x Maggie Rogers collab featuring Mumford & Sons. (But like, actually.)

Definitely add it to any female-dominated summer playlists, especially ones that would make for a good movie soundtrack. This is mine.

honorable mentions

I truly believe that listening to full albums somehow stretches out time! In the spirit of enjoying everything more fully this summer, this is what’s on my June album rotation:

LOTS OF JONAS BROTHERS. Emphasis on The Album.
LOOK! I’m Alive, Quinn XCII
SUBJECT TO CHANGE, Kelsea Ballerini.
Native, One Republic
AURORA, Daisy Jones & The Six (if you know, you freaking *know*)
Live From Fenway Park, Noah Kahan
Something to Tell You, HAIM
Moon Music, Coldplay
Lost in Translation, Valley

Random: am I the only one who thinks that animated movies are some of the smartest, most impactful films ever made? It’s one of those things I cringe to admit, but still LOVE to bring up. (If you know me irl, you know I spent most of last week talking about Despicable Me 2.)

Anyway, I’m thinking about making a round up of my favorites. Tell me your favs! Any art moms living vicariously through what your kids are watching? Please chime in!!! (I have a feeling I’ll be the mom watching over my kids’ shoulders and taking things way more seriously than they do…)

I work with the smartest women ever (on team Migrate Marketing!!) Two of them recently rebranded their own Substacks, this platform that we’ve come to love more and more both for ourselves and for our clients.

I was lucky enough to do the visuals! I still can’t believe my day job is swimming in colors and capturing people’s lightning-in-a-bottle ideas. Maddie & Caroline are now LIVE! here on Substack — check them out:

other fun reads

Speaking of liking the things that other girls like ↓

For my women in marketing! (Migrate has a monthly newsletter where we talk pop culture and art and tie it back to the marketing industry! Caroline was the one who got me thinking in rom com terms last month ↓)

Going Places

Your 2010s rom-com dream job still exists.

I saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 last week. Not only was I reinvigorated to dress for the office, but it reminded me of my 2012 lusting after what I now classify as a “rom-com swatch job…

Read more

4 months ago · 25 likes · Caroline Lunne

Hoping for the brightest June possible for all of us!

Rumor has it, my dad wanted to name me Kate. I guess he liked the flow of it with our last name, said it ‘just worked’. It was a family name on my mom’s side, but only ever spelled with a C, which he didn’t like as much. So they passed on it, and named me Aubrey instead. (Yes, after a song by a band called Bread…)

Two decades later, my older brother married a girl named Kate. As she took our last name and tacked it onto her first (which yes, does sound great together!), my dad got a Kate in the family after all.

I could share a similarly special story for most people in my life. Millions of invisible strings, “coincidental” collisions of my lives with other people’s. Perfectly matched senses of humors and trains of thought. I say it to my best friends all the time, Kate included:

Doesn’t it seem like we were made to know each other?

I devoured the story of Remarkably Bright Creatures this weekend, book and movie (new on Netflix!) in one blissfully empty Sunday. It breathes a similar message: some people are just meant to be in our lives. They fit, whether it be by blood, a common hometown, a shared experience. Maybe even just a ‘right place, right time’ situation. It can exist in all sizes, from a temporary helping hand to a soul connection that sticks to you until you die.

In this particular story, Tova & Cameron are literally destined to meet, but I won’t spoil! Just know that a life of pain in many forms led them ultimately to each other. Not coincidence, but a connection clearly meant to be — obvious even to the nature around them.

Speaking of the octopus narrator — yes you read that right — I devoured this book on my kindle while doubling up with the audiobook. Mostly because Michael Urie from Shrinking was narrating for Marcellus, the bonus character POV: a giant pacific octopus! Observing the story from his tank in the aquarium where the characters work, he was a brilliant addition that gave everything even more heart. (Literally, 3x.)

Usually I have months and months to wait before a book’s movie adaptation comes out, by which time I’ve forgotten the plot and am equally as surprised by the film as I was the book. It was fun to enjoy these closer together and spot the differences in how the story was told.

The book definitely had layers that the movie just could not capture. There were multiple vivid writing moments that I paused to write down, which never happens to me in fiction books:

“Everything is so green here. And the forest, the enormous evergreen trees crammed so tightly together, looking at them makes Cameron almost uncomfortable, as if he’s claustrophobic on their behalf.“

“Ethan clears his throat, as if trying to cough away the awkwardness.”

“Tova realizes she has flattened herself against the tank behind her, as if all of those words had been a strong wind. She straightens and pats her hair, like it might have been blown out of place too.”

It’s ultimately a story of the connections between us and how we find them. Blood family, chosen family, maybe a future spouse or a new sibling married in, a perfectly timed mentor or an unexpected friend. We will meet who we’re meant to. We need each other! Our tangled lives, intricately designed by the same hands that made the details of nature. Truly remarkable (!)

10/10, a new favorite! xx

honorable mentions:

More wholesome recs with ‘invisible string’ energy:

+ This Is Us (the BEST!)
+ Parenthood
+ Finding Dory (IMPORTANT)
+ Instant Family
+ The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (my #1 read a few years ago)
+ One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
+ Lu by Beth Troy

Jackie Evans’ music makes everything feel warm. I thinkkk she’s teasing an album. I need it!!! For now, she’s releasing amazing tracks one by one. She’s a triple threat to the art appreciator’s ears — a pure pianist, lyricist, & vocalist. Prodigy level!

I think Keke Palmer might be my favorite celebrity! Charisma embodied.

This article is perfectly worded. For us social overthinkers:

“which is why so many people panic the moment they act differently than usual. quieter one day, louder the next. completely unbothered on saturday, inexplicably fragile on tuesday. and instead of accepting that as just being human, suddenly the brain goes wait, which version is the real, authentic one? when honestly the answer is all of them. because human beings are not ikea cabinets, we’re not assembled once and then emotionally identical forever. if you think about who you were this exact time last year, you probably speak slightly differently, laugh at different things, feel unbothered by things that would have hurt you 12 months ago. this is not evidence that you’re fake, it’s evidence that you’re alive.”

If you have them, give me more recs that cue happy gratitude tears!! Books, movies, music, I welcome all the beautiful art!

Subscribe now

You could have guessed this was coming — we have to talk about the Michael movie !!!

(I wish I could play music for you while you read. If I could, I’d hit play on this song right now to keep you company.)

In my head growing up, Michael Jackson was just this massively famous figure with a hard edge, huge career, and controversial life. Aside from knowing the classic songs, the extent of my actual knowledge was basically the 2010 We Are the World video, which I watched hundreds of times. (Miley carried the vocals here…)

(I do also remember seeing the Thriller music video for the first time as a kid and having nightmares hahaha)

But wow, his intensity is matched by his gentleness. I didn’t know that! His pure childlike confidence just persists against all odds. And the actor who played young Michael (Juliano Valdi, STAR!) sets the tone with a serious all-out effort! I was so impressed by him, I can only imagine how people felt about Michael back then.

(The moment of him wanting to play Twister with his brothers! My heart!!)

Jaafar Jackson also nailed Michael’s mannerisms down to a tee. Anytime he was performing, I forgot I was watching a movie. No, I was at a live freaking show — one I was unfortunately born too late to attend myself.

If you’ve seen it, you know why I will never be over this transition:

Art about art is the best. You always “know of” icons like Michael Jackson, but movies like this walk you through iconic performances and musical eras with new eyes. You actually see the up-close expressions and off-stage effort. It doesn’t necessarily give you fact, but I think that’s the point. It completely opens up your mind when it comes to art and culture and the complicated people who create it. If I didn’t know this about them, what else do I not know?

If anything, it just proves to me that we do people a huge disservice when we pretend to know them perfectly or try to box them in, especially artists. Good art reminds us that there are millions of experiences packed into a single life, most that we’ll never see.

It’s also a wild way to see how much your own life holds. At only 25 (my age), Michael just debuted the moonwalk (!) and hadn’t even touched the Bad album yet?! The kids that grew up on the Jackson 5 were introducing kids of their own to Michael’s art, who would show their kids who would show their kids… It’s hard to even comprehend!

Even better put by Mimi here:

All that being said, Michael is definitely worth seeing (maybe twice — I’m going again ASAP)

P.S. If you need another niche in-route, this is it. I can’t be the only Gen Z that learned about most musical legends via Glee ?!?

P.P.S. My other introduction to Michael in 2012. God bless Keke.

honorable mentions of the week

begged is currently going triple platinum in my house. I need this album stat!

Give Olivia some metaphors and an acoustic guitar and we’re all doomed:

And yet I still cling
Cling to hope like snow on mountains
Careless words melt it away
I'm a penny in a fountain, just waiting on my luck to change

My favorite comfort pod, back at it again with Amy Poehler’s elite roster of guests. Billie Eilish was on Good Hang this week. Um, I didn’t know that was an option!

It’s a tiny reassurance when the artists I like also like each other. And that they too rely on humor, on things like reruns of comfort sitcoms and their family’s inside jokes. (Amy asks all of her guests what makes them laugh, which I love.)

Honestly, a lot like Michael’s gentle side in some ways, Billie seems kind of hardcore and dark and intense. In reality, she’s rewatching The Office 3 times a year and joking with her big brother in the studio.

A light heart is essential to the art. “I live to laugh,” as Billie says. Same!

This Tori Kelly announcement has me stoked!!! The title, the cover, her hairrrr.

Locking in my official favorites from Noah’s album: Orbiter, American Cars, Deny Deny Deny, & Haircut. Emphasis on American Cars, since it was written for his sister.

You're gonna fix it, you're gonna patch it up.
Honey, we're fragile, you've always been so tough.
You know that I miss you, you always come running back
Whenever I ask

My peacemaker big sister heart can’t take it!

In actually writing down my favorites these last few months, I’ve noticed how I keep connecting the dots between the same people and things. The hobby and joy of art appreciation for me is less about always finding something new, but finding a new side of something I already love. (Like the world has with Michael; somehow the fanbase is still growing!)

That’s the thing about being a lover of art: it’s an infinite undertaking. There is such solace in having favorites, whether you continually replay your own classics or have the privilege of watching your favorite artist still creating new things. I’m just happy to be in the midst of this never-ending creativity.

“Don’t stop til you get enough,” one might say.

Happy weekend!

Go see Michael ASAP on the biggest screen possible!

I come back to it often, those four explorers up there looking at Earth from a distance. Surrounded by blackness, thinking about their family and their friends. Their houses and neighborhoods and memories. Tiny personal landmarks in the sea of blue and green and white and brown.

If you looked at Earth from the Moon, what would you see? If you could have that point of view for just a few minutes, what would you look for first inside the mix of colored shapes?

I’d see the checkered dance floor at my friend’s wedding. I’d hear the electric closing song playing loud on the speakers.

I’d see my parents sitting at a local lunch spot, a spot open for me.

I’d see my childhood friends gathered in the living rooms of our post-grad apartments and married houses.

I’d see my college roommate up late, holding and loving her first baby.

I’d see my best friend sitting in her room a few hours away from mine. I’d see both of our faces on our rectangular screens, laughing.

I’d see my dog jumping in circles at the sound of my car door closing.

I’d see the bright blue walls in my office, hear my team on the phone solving problems together and fitting as many inside jokes as possible into one hour-long call.

I’d see the cities around the world that I stepped foot in, even for just a day. I’d see my friends and I laughing from rows apart on airplanes. I’d see my brother and his wife posing for a photo while fighting off pigeons on the stairs of Sacré-Cœur. It would still make me laugh, even from the moon.

I’d see my hometown, the one I came back to after living away. I’d see my blue-ish gray car driving the roads I used to look at from a kids car seat. Playing my music now. Going wherever I want.

I’d see the art on the walls in my familiar apartment. My gingham bedding. The basket of cards from friends on my dresser. Winter jackets on hooks by the door that turn into hats and sunglasses by May.

I’d see the journals, books, and headphones stacked on my nightstand, full of feelings, full of stories.

It’s all right here, easy to miss if we don’t look close enough. The things that really matter, that keep our little lives afloat in the vast darkness. The love that we circle around and around.

Lucky us!

P.S. What I’d have playing on my trip to the moon:

Musicians have collectively decided: the art of the album is back.

I know, good albums never really disappeared. But there does seem to be a resurgence. Artists are taking their time building worlds for us to step into.

Noah Kahan leads the way this week for the favorites, with some other finds from artists I (we) love. Plus some clips of creative processes (my favorite) and art’s giant questions that got my gears turning yet again.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

Starting with the talk of the town — The Great Divide. Worth-the-wait folk bliss.

He jokes in every interview that it’s a sad album through and through, but I hear a lot of goodness packed into all the vulnerability.

“Sad music doesn’t make me sad; it makes me feel connected. Like someone else is feeling it too, and it actually makes me happy. Not happy that the writer went through that or that I went through that. I’m just happy that we’re both right here and we’re like, ‘We are the same.’” // Noah

A same-day deluxe album was a welcomed surprise — “The Last of the Bugs” (perfect deluxe name btw). I’m grateful that he added the extra tracks but kept the album cover the same. Finally, a deliberate choice for only one image to represent an album. Refreshing! (Subject to change, fingers crossed not…)

Another tiny detail I love: he doesn’t drop the 4 deluxe songs at the end of the tracklist. They are scattered throughout — “like bugs” !!! Song order is another way of storytelling specific to a long album format.

His documentary on Netflix was full of things I can’t stop thinking about.

After years of massive attention, Noah returned to his off-the-grid hometown for what he thought would be an escape. It ended up forcing him to face his new (and old) life head-on. Living out the complicated New England life his songs describe.

This dynamic between art and life is so interesting. Art imitates life imitates art, right? One can't really exist without the other.

The experiences Noah articulates are all things that creative people know well, with or without fame. Going back to the drawing board after an accomplishment. Creating with added expectations. Wondering if you’ll ever have your younger self’s free mindset again, now that everything’s different. In short, this album’s underlying questions hit us artists right where it hurts. A gut check: am I living the life I’m always writing about?

I for one am always tempted to live mostly in my head, to package life up with a metaphor or pretty shape. We all make art from our own life and the people in it. It’s all we know! But do we also then show up fully to that life and those people, even without a pen or keyboard (be it a piano or a computer) at our fingertips?

There’s no clear answer, but this album will keep us company while we re-find ourselves repeatedly, which I’m grateful for.

“I just wanted to say that I think you guys are all f**king geniuses. I’ve watched so many of your guys’ TikToks and edits. I feel like all the intention I put into this music and the story I wanted to tell and the place that I wanted the music to bring you — it’s being found by you. And that’s, like, the greatest thing you could have as a person who makes music and as a person that listens to it. It’s when you feel like we’re both living in the same world.” // Noah

It all makes me think of this:

“In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”

―Mary Oliver

ONE more note on Noah —

I loveee songs titled by numbers. The song “23” reminded me!

Naming art by a number can represent so much. Age, of course — numbers marking that year’s experiences and immediately drawing out memories when you see it. Also time, location, date, amount of times you’ve lived or felt something. It reminds me of painters numbering their pieces as they go. 01, 02, 03. A nod to how endless and open-ended creation can be. One of many to come.

Because it scratches my brain to make a little list (think, a gallery of art in the museum), I gathered my favorite songs titled with numbers:

Love this hidden detail, tucking a zip code into a song:

Huge honorable mention for this iconic saga:

honorable mentions!

Whatever Justin put in his Coachella performances, I fell victim to it. I can not stop playing SWAG II. This what I call a “dump” album. Tons of songs, one big creative-brainstorm-turned-final-product. To our benefit!

I’ll be here, rewatching the Coachella sets.

P.S. I’ll never forget this either:

I still watch live performances constantly. My favorite way of looking at a song through a new lens. I wrote about this helpful creative addition to your routines here ↓

Holly Humberstone’s newest album is awesome. Cruel World won’t leave my head. Love the theatrics of Beauty Pageant.

This version of drop dead is IT! Olivia’s voice + an acoustic guitar will rule the 2020 pop girls forever.

SCREAMING! ↓

bonus favorite…!

that I just started watching on Apple TV

If you love New Girl, you’ll love Trying. Think British Jessica Day and Nick Miller. Endearing second hand embarrassment that you can’t get enough of.

Off to go play The Great Divide from the top.

*cue the crickets in End of August*

Popping in after a long week of travel!

I spent the last few days in Charleston with my work friends celebrating a million things — most of all our client (turned friend) Jen Shoop’s book release (!!!) and our beloved teammate Maddie’s wedding. A blissful week of in-person inspiration that this WFH girl needed bad.

Before I left for my trip, I was taking an evening walk and passed this girl on the sidewalk who looked just like me. White over-the-ear Airpods. Dirty running shoes, probably (shamelessly) used more often for walking than running. We both opted for comfier sweatpants over tight leggings that day, and donned similar sweatshirts with the names of our respective colleges on them.

I had RAYE’s album playing (to no one’s surprise), and thought to myself: She looks like she would love this album. Better yet, I bet she also has it playing right now.

Whether it was true or not, I felt a flash of joy just thinking about how similar we all are. In many ways, I am just like so many other 20-somethings women I know and love.

We walk in the evening to move our bodies after work. (A habit we keep saying we want to be more consistent in…) We call our parents as often as possible. We light up to talk about pop music. We wear colors in our “palette” and decorate with photos and keepsakes pinned on our walls.

We get anxious that we won’t find our person, as we simultaneously celebrate how much we love our independence. We grew up creating and playing pretend 24/7. Now we play our day-job roles with lots of responsibilities and not as much time to make art for fun as we’d like.

We tune into podcasts where the only topic at hand is pop culture. We can admit that Jake Shane is genius and hilarious. (Objectively, he is.) We watched every angle of Billie Eilish as the One Less Lonely Girl this weekend. We liked every video of Alysa Liu’s Olympic interviews. We sobbed at the astronauts naming a crater of the moon after the commander’s late wife.

In all the big and small ways, we have so much in common. I absolutely love it.

Now for some art appreciation! My finds this week mostly come from in-person moments with art (my favorite kind).

the dog days are so over

Went to my beautiful friend Maddie’s wedding this weekend! They ended the night with Dog Days Are Over, another one to add to the list of things we ALL love. I swear this song elicits pure joy out of anyone & everyone.

It had Caroline & I bursting with energy the rest of the weekend. Having creative friends that find meaning in everything is so nice. Us big feelers need each other, to take care of all the tiny inspirations that bubble up from time together.

Quality time with my friends also always triggers a serendipitous string of art encounters. Lots of favorite things, perfectly sprinkled on my path. This weekend was no different!

One of Caroline & I’s favorite Coldplay songs (that I never hear anywhere) played at my airport gate. As I sat smiling like an idiot and looking at photos from the weekend, I overheard a woman a few rows over telling her friend how great Shrinking is. (Agree!) Later, I shot a text to my friends Kelsey & Jill when I realized the girls from one of our favorite bands Trousdale were a few people ahead of me on the jet bridge. (Movie Star stays in my Spotify Wrapped Top 100 year after year…)

All this to say, art makes great company for life. Music marks moments for us. We celebrate with it, we mourn with it, we show our love with it, we pass time with it.

My own friendships are wrapped in it — Dog Days will now always make me think of Maddie, just like Coldplay makes me think of Caroline and Trousdale makes me think of Kelsey and Jill.

I’ll say it a million times in a million ways:

Art bottles up indescribable feelings (in my current case, love ?!?) as physical encounters, memories — so we can recognize and appreciate those feelings over and over and over again.

honorable mentions

for liking together ↓

This not being on streaming is painful. Did you grow up on these movies too? (Another thing we might have in common.)

A very underrated JB song, for what it’s worth. Loved you, Bieberchella.

Speaking of Tori Kelly, my phone glitched on the plane and this album / EP was the only downloaded item that would play. I wasn’t mad, because I rediscovered how great it is.

Finally, a few brilliant quotes from Jacob Collier that found me this week.

Grateful for this mindset shift when it comes to working in a creative field right now:

“In a world of AI, your freedom is in your unpredictability. You have a whole host of large language models, all of which are trained to do the most predictable thing next. One of the things that differentiates humans from AI, among many, is that we are not the most efficient of beings. And the things that are most meaningful to us are not necessarily the things that are most predictable to us.

As a harmonist, it is one of my greatest joys to take a song or a melody and find the most unexpected things to do with it. Whatever you think I’m going to do, I’m going to do the opposite."

And especially hitting for me this weekend is this language for feeling physical art appreciation:

“Quincy Jones used to tell me… ‘Follow your goosebumps. They’ll never lead you wrong.’ Goosebumps are non-cerebral. They don’t show up when you think about something really hard. Goosebumps happen when they want to happen.

[…] Sometimes you have to recognize the response your body is already having to something emotionally, because feeling moves faster than thought.”

To a great week ahead!

Hi hi hi!

Thanks for all the love on the Raye post; I have found my people!! I’ll be keeping this perfect album on the queue for the foreseeable future.

And hello to anyone who just subscribed! I love collecting likable art here — it’s way better when all of us can like things together.

Like everyone else, I could not get enough of the Artemis II crew this week. I had the live streams on constantly, the crackle of their radio communication like white noise in the background of my day. As they floated around and did their tasks, I did too.

More than a scientific accomplishment, this feels like art. This is the blueprint for following your passions while keeping a pure heart. These are the exact kind of people we should be looking up to. (Literally.)

I mean, they named the spaceship itself Integrity, chosen to “embody the foundation of trust, respect, candor, and humility.”

It’s reminding me what actually matters when it comes to accomplishing hard things. Focus, intelligence, bravery, yes. But also tenderness, honesty, wonder, appreciation (!!!), and, most of all, each other.

“You guys are talking to us because we’re on a spaceship really far from Earth, but you are on a spaceship called Earth.”

Space exploration seems to be just as much about discovering what’s “out there” as it is about re-discovering the beauty of what’s right here in front of us. I’m captivated by how beautifully the crew spoke about this before, during, and after the mission. The four of them have this comforting ability to take huge incomprehensible things (e.g. the universe, our place in the universe) and make it feel completely personal. Rather, they prove that it is personal. Like true scientists, they provide clear evidence — documentation of love existing and enduring.

And that is the art here: taking what’s impossible to understand, and grasping onto the goodness within it.

This speech from Jeremy Hansen sums it all up:

“What I would like to share today is three of the human experiences for us [from this mission].

I’ll start with gratitude. Gratitude for my family, gratitude for NASA, for its leadership, gratitude for Canadian Space Agency. For Reid, Christina, Victor. Gratitude for the bravery and the courage for the teams to be no-go when we were no-go, and go when we were go. That took a lot. I don’t think people will really ever fully comprehend how well supported and trained we were. It is almost unbelievable.

The next one is joy. We have a term in our crew that we coined a long time ago: ‘the joy train.’ And it sounds like you saw a lot of joy up there. There was a lot of joy. We’re not always on the joy train, this crew. There are many times we’re not on the joy train, but we are committed to getting back on the joy train as soon as we can. And that is a useful life skill for any team trying to get something done.

The last one is love. What you saw was a group of people who loved contributing, having meaningful contribution, and extracting joy out of that. And what we’ve been hearing is that was something special for you to witness.

I would suggest to you that when you look up here, you’re not looking at us. We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you.”

I will be thinking about this for a really long time. My supply of hope has been filled back up to the brim! Just in time for spring to bloom!

Also iconic: NASA making a playlist of the astronauts’ wakeup songs.

Now, into some other favorite things from this week!

art for spring

Speaking of planet Earth, nature is coming to life! I gathered these songs that have a little more pep in the step, but aren’t quite to the energy of summer yet. Anything mentioning florals made the cut as well (ofc!)

and for your spring watchlist:

I feel like all my comfort movies are either set in cozy fall & winter or pure summer. Where is the in-between for spring?

I’m choosing Love, Rosie as my personal April re-watch. The coloring, especially at the end, feels perfectly pink and golden for the season.

These are some other spring movies coming to mind:

Princess Diaries 2 (PD1 is more fall to me)
High School Musical 3 (this one feels especially right)
Instant Family (happy tears)
Tangled (“flower gleam & glow” / “smell the grass” ??!)
La La Land (colorful but also sad)
10 Things I Hate About You (because prom)
Enchanted (everything about this)
About Time (more happy tears)

Do you agree?! What would you add to this list?

this week’s finds

listening

Ella Langley’s new album! I would describe this as easy music, in the best way. I spent my Saturday doing some spring cleaning and painting for fun with this in the background, and it was perfect.

Bottom Of Your Boots is most stuck in my head. And I love these more hopeful songs from her — Loving Life Again, Butterfly Season, and Somethin’ Simple are my initial favorites from the album for that reason. I sent them straight to my spring playlist!

Also loving this new MUNA song and, maybe even more, this Tiny Habits cover of it.

reading

I finally finished The God of the Woods (the TV adaptation just casted Maya Hawke btw, which I’m loving) and What Kind of Paradise last month. Devoured the former, felt meh but still entertained by the latter. Currently reading The Women, and Tom Lake is downloaded & ready for me next on my kindle.

And a bonus rec because we’re talking about space — Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid was by far my favorite read earlier this year. Had me hooked from start to finish.

watching

Shrinking had its season finale, but you already know how much I loved that. Always feels worth mentioning, in case I can get a few new eyes on this perfect show.

My brother & I just finished our third rewatch of LOST (forever the best) and the newest season of Paradise, which we loved!!!

I did also see Project Hail Mary this weekend (a perfectly timed space movie release!), and I cried like a babyyy. Probably amplified by my Artemis II hyperfixation.

celebrating !!!

My friend is back on the internet. We’re all better for it! Her new website is insanely good. She is the master of layering texture + language + color into mini masterpieces. Favorite artist on Instagram - go follow!!!

I’d also be remiss here if I didn't mention Dermot Kennedy’s new album. No one appreciates him with me the way Mariana does. He is a pure poet!

highly anticipating

More reading! Isabel Klee (@simonsits on Instagram) has a new memoir coming out this month, and I cannot WAIT to read it. Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About. The title and cover design are both perfectly done.

I can’t believe it’s also turning into a TV show ?!?! Feeling parasocially excited for her. She fosters rescue dogs, and her storytelling is so unique and creative and wholesome, which will undoubtedly translate perfectly into book and tv format. Highly anticipating!!!

Last very random thing — the new Olivia Rodrigo album cover is chef’s! kiss! As I see it circling around the internet, I love these details that everyone is pulling out: she’s head over heels / ‘one foot in, one foot out’ / has her head in the clouds / it’s blue + red aka purple (her signature color) deconstructed. Round of applause for the creative direction here!

Another great week full of so much to like and love. What’s in your spring art collection? Dying to know!!!

And oneee more quote, straight from Integrity —

“When you find that fire in your soul, and you know what you’re meant to do, just lean all in and go for it. And if some of you end up going and walking on Mars, the four of us—myself, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy—we will be in the front row cheering you on loud and clear.” // Reid Wiseman

Love being on Earth with you!

Another post about the power of art when things are too complex to understand:

And thoughts on gathering evidence for hope:

The Oscars buzz has swept past us, but the movie I can’t stop thinking about isn’t on a screen. It’s actually playing right now on my Spotify:

This Music May Contain Hope !!!

Raye has given us a beast of an album, and I’ve been taking it in it all week. I was visiting a long-distance friend right when it came out, but I was lucky (?) to get 10+ hrs on plane rides home, which gave me some time to finally tune in.

This music kind of demands attention (which we’ll get into), so it was nice to not rush through it. That being said, only one week with it and I already have a million working thoughts!

To state the obvious, this album might not be your typical listen. The songs are busy, busy, busy. Raye is going full maximalist. If you’ve already heard WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!, you know a little of what to expect.

I can only hope (!) that this little deep dive might be a bridge to giving it a try. I really admire what Raye is bringing to music right now, and I haven’t heard anything like it before (I know, I know. I say that a lot. This time I’m SERIOUS!)

Without further ado, if you’ll indulge this hyperfixation, my first art appreciation post of April is dedicated solely to Raye.

no multitasking, sorry!

First things first, my one recommendation for your listening experience: pay attention.

This album is not one you’ll turn on during a busy day and immediately get it (like our beloved Prizefighter).

BUT. But!

If you have an inkling it might be your cup of tea, I do recommend carving out space to really let it land (and surprise you!)

also… what key are we in?

Better yet, what genre even is this? Who cares! Raye certainly doesn’t.

(A friend asked me, “Is it a musical?” Sometimes!)

There’s zero to none typical song structure here — no predictable verses and very rarely a singular bridge. We get glimpses of everything: theatrics, r&b, jazz, house, pop, soul, even gospel. Most of the songs are well above 4 minutes!

This seems to be Raye’s musical language. I’m thinking of the winding road that is The Thrill is Gone. from her last album — her signature style is constant musical motion.

In other words: just when you think you know where a song is going, it changes direction.

Because of that, skipping around these songs won’t give you a great sense of the music. If you turn off the last minute of The WhatsApp Shakespeare., you may as well have missed the whole thing! This goes for the album as a whole. The first half (moodier music presented as fall & winter) is pretty different than the last half (a more upbeat spring & summer).

More like a movie or live show, we’re sat (literally) as we take in what’s presented to us. Raye does help us out by naming some of the songs as she performs them, mini mid-show introductions like she would on stage.

A full start-to-finish listen was a great way to start. It especially hit on my dark overnight plane ride (because, duh). But since then, I’ve been blasting my few favorites in my car speakers or noise-cancelling headphones.

The only real non-negotiable is loud volume with few distractions.

(My favorite tracks are all in the sunny back half, by the way. If you’re not buying into this whole high maintenance listening experience, I recommend at least jumping to Fields. & Joy. By far my #1 and #2.)

therapy for your attention span.

Most of us don’t have (or think we don’t have) any extra time or brain space to really listen to music anymore. Like actually listen.

Raye’s music is so full that it pushes me to slow down and let my hobbies — music definitely being one of mine — be something I spend time on. Diving deep into what we love to do requires (and is worth) real attention!

I was grateful to come across this clip of Laufey, perfectly describing the feeling:

I’m so taken by things that take a long time. Slow art. Art that takes a little bit more effort to understand. Art that maybe you don’t get immediately.

We are so conditioned now to just see things at face value, and if we don’t like it, we dismiss it. Or if it isn’t fast enough to enter our body, we immediately dismiss it.

[…] I think it’s good to not understand. We understand too much these days.

She’s talking about classical music here, but I think this idea can apply to anything that stops us in our tracks, confuses us a little, and encourages us to get outside our creative boxes.

we need artists like this.

If you need filled in: Raye wrote mostly for other artists for years and years, while the music she really wanted to make was delayed by her record label. She eventually took things into her own hands, releasing her debut album independently in 2023.

For these last few years, as she says herself, she has been free to create music with “no rules”. Her and her sisters are now managed by their parents — a close-knit family business.

Raye’s music does feel very personal in that way. Raye herself—her own rogue ideas and musical experimentation in the studio—is fully present in the end result. I love any inside look I can get into her process and the physical spaces she’s in when she creates.

“[Raye’s] blisteringly aware of how meta-theatrical she’s being,” is how this reviewer put it. Exactly. When I listen to this album, I mostly hear an inspired artist having a blast making her art.

The wild concepts mostly work because you know that she knows that we know this whole thing is kind of ridiculous, in the best way.

Honestly, I’m envious of Raye’s creative risks. The absolute rush and pride that she must have that she made this, plus seeing it really gain some traction. I’m motivated, by her willingness to take huge “ridiculous” leaps, to try more things and give more effort to what I do.

One last thing — the spiritual heartbeat throughout this music makes me so happy. That is the purest hope embedded here. Small prayers (“He sees you” / “I know He’s working”) sit in the middle of so many songs.

Of course, Joy. is just the epitome of this. And her sisters?! Were these girls born with autotune in their vocal cords? Geez!

song by song…

If I created even one of these songs, I’d die happy and proud. For her to have made this entire album is mind-blowing to me.

I’ve been keeping track of my favorite lyrics and other tiny details:

For my theater people — Beware.. The South London Lover Boy. has the jazzy theatrics of Hadestown. It also shows that Raye has perfected the playful pop songwriting of artists like Sabrina Carpenter. I’m talking also about I Hate The Way I Look Today. and the painfully funny Skin & Bones.

When I listen to Click Clack Symphony. and Joy., I get that contagious Florence & the Machine / Dog Days Are Over euphoria — very free, innately feminine.

WIMH! teased it, but her grandmother’s voice is actually a big presence throughout the album. Her grandfathers too. If I had to choose one favorite song, I think it would be Fields. One of my favorite relationships in my life has been being a grandkid to a grandparent. It just is such freedom, for both people. Free to be young together, to create and learn from each other. It feels really special to hear that captured in a song.

Someone get Adele to cover Nightingale Lane. ASAP.

Adore Al Green’s little “hello, hi” in Goodbye Henry.

The start of Fin. — straight out of the Emerald City?! Was waiting for Jeff Goldblum to pop out.

Because Raye’s passionate about what she’s making and getting the attention she deserves, it of course makes me think of Olivia Dean. We got The Art of Loving, and now we have “the art of hope”. Lucky us!

p.s.

No one better than Raye herself to explain her work to us. I loved hearing inside her heart & mind in this interview.

This review captures my track-by-track thoughts so well. (Raye approves — she commented!)

I will never be over her Grammys performance. 19 seconds without taking a breath is wild. “Hello Grammys!” Must watch.

p.s. again for honorable mentions

I can’t help myself! If you made it this far, you deserve a few extra recs.

Steve Carell was on the Good Hang podcast the week after I got nostalgic about his movies. I see no coincidence! Loved the episode so much.

New Niall Horan album in June?! The first single is so catchy.

To close us out, all in the same vein (of having a passion for what you do) — I loved the Raye x Taylor Swift x Alysa Liu crossover at the iHeartRadio awards last weekend. I kept rewatching Taylor’s speech:

“I didn’t think I was an artist when I first started doing it. It was a hobby. It was a hobby, and then it was my favorite hobby. And then it was what I would, like, rush home from school to do. It was like, ‘I can’t wait to get back to my guitar in my room and write a song.’

[…] You get feedback for everything you share with the world now. Everything you post, you get feedback, whether it’s good or bad or whatever. I just want to say, if I had one hope for you, I would say that I hope that you get to nurture your hobby and your passion just between you and that craft. And you give yourself time. Give yourself time to make mistakes. Give yourself some time to hone your craft.”

Wowow.

Thanks so much for reading! Can’t wait to hear what you think of Raye’s album, if you do listen!

Happy Easter weekend too! Sending you lots & lots of life & hope.

Lately, this is the first place I go when I open my phone. I feel like when I come on here, I actually like the world. Maybe even feel good about it. It makes sense, because artists will be (are always) the ones to give us hope.

Anyway, after a blissfully chill weekend, I’m here to report that I have been enjoying Harry Styles’ album more and more.

Not gonna lie, it really is overstimulating at first. But I’m promising everyone, one moment it just clicks and you can’t turn it off.

One person on TikTok did say that it sounds like the strange music Ross made in that one episode of Friends — absolutely correct hahaha. (I love that comparison and that scene killlls me.) Now I’m dying to see Monica and Ross do “The Routine” with Dance No More in the background.

In the spirit of light, hopeful, and even funny art — these are my favorites from this week! ↓

what I’m reading on substack

I’m actually feeling fulfilled when I spend my time on these:

Maggie Rogers is here on Substack now!!

I just started diving into Brad Montague’s archives and he is the best and most hopeful artist. I love anyone who pairs great writing with awesome visuals.

The Enthusiast by Brad Montague

For Those Who Zag

I used to be so inspired by the old “Think Different” Apple ad…

Read more

6 months ago · 153 likes · 32 comments · Brad Montague

Whenever I get notified about Feeling! Magazine, I get so giddy. More of that written + visual combo. Jenna is a genius creative thinker. Her writing is really specific and inspiring, and her art is so satisfying to look at.

I see David Larbi’s videos on my TikTok a lot, and just recently started reading his writing on here. Pure hope! The most beautiful short poetry. I loved this:

Hope and Joy with David Larbi

I get eczema on my neck when I’m very, very stressed

I get eczema on my neckWhen I’m very, very stressedThe way things are right nowI’ve been expecting it againI’m not wishing it upon myselfThis is truly not a testI’ve just felt overwhelmed and downLik…

Read more

6 months ago · 118 likes · 12 comments · David Larbi

on my art radar

feeling encouraged!

The first 10 seconds of Dance No More. Just, yes. (The bridge is also addictive.)

I can’t get enough of these Zara Larsson dance breaks. (Every clip is so fun that it almost makes emotional.) This moment of her riding the Bike Bus was also so sweet!

RAYE’s tracklist was released! (An album divided into the four seasons with a Hans Zimmer feature… I’m obsessed with the drama!) This week I listened to Nightingale Lane constantly and went back to some old essentials (The Thrill is Gone !!!) while I wait for her new music.

A comfort rewatch of Evan Almighty (Have you heard of this? 2007 perfection.) My brother and I just remembered it even exists this week, and we were dying rewatching it. This is one of the movies we played over and over again at our grandmother’s house growing up. The whole time watching we kept saying, “I remember her laughing so hard at that!!” Steve Carell stays the best. A must-watch if you want something happy to turn on.

This week’s episode of Shrinking! The music moments in this show cannot be beat. A Thousand Years? Perfect. Christa Miller (Liz!!!) is a genius music supervisor. I’ve been listening to the playlist a ton.

I’m living for Secret Lives season 4. The dose of reality TV I needed. I’m devouring the DWTS behind-the-scenes drama. (I love Whitney!)

It was another great Friday of new music. These are the songs that I saved:

Hope you had the best weekend, and a great week ahead!

When I first got the journal, five years felt so long. I imagined that during this final year, I’d look back on four years of entries and see huge differences and groundbreaking changes in my life. While some things have changed (I certainly have), it’s not as dramatic as I’d anticipated.

In this first half of my twenties, the things I like most about my life have pretty much stayed the same. Every night, I write them down again and again:

I exchanged voice memos with my best friend today. It made me feel so much better.

I got to design all day and call it my job.

I had a great conversation with my sister-in-law. She always understands me so well.

I took a long walk.

I laughed hard at an inside joke with my little brother.

I enjoyed trying a new hobby.

I love living in this apartment that I got to decorate.

I found some great music.

I chatted with my parents. I’m grateful to be close with them.

My bed is so comfortable. (Without fail, this always makes the list.)

Amidst all my own anxiety about the future (and the present), these repeating lists speak loudly & clearly about my life. It makes it so simple to see what I really care about and what (mostly who) really cares about me.

Still, I’m easily tricked by this repetition into thinking that simple = trivial. I almost “take for granted” the very practice of not taking things for granted… This is so obvious. This is nothing new. Does saying this day after day really matter?

It does. It matters!!!

It’s right there on the lines of my journal: proof of things working out. Look how much good happened today, and the day before, and the day before! Isn’t that enough to convince me that things will work out again tomorrow?

For a few weeks, I’ve been keeping a specific list of “things that worked out.” I’m taking things I typically do not acknowledge and naming them as my new favorite parts of the day.

It started with the joy of a few green lights in a row and relief that my toast didn’t turn black (such delicate timing!) Now I’m finding myself looking for anything and everything that technically didn’t have to go right, but did.

It’s impossible to know what will happen in the next five years, but I do really believe that things will keep working out, even if it’s just the small stuff we can count on. (And having the evidence to return to really helps!)

[as titled in my notes app: A list of things that worked out.]

A green light
(even better, a green arrow)

Toasting bread without burning it

Not having a sore throat

My computer working as it should

Making it home safe

A coffee shop latte that tastes good

Not needing to set an alarm for the next day

Pouring something without spilling

Walking right up to the register
(extra points for a nice cashier encounter)

Everyone in the friend group being free the same day

A highway exit with a long merge lane & no cars approaching
(Yes, a lot of these are road-related. Sincerely, an anxious driver.)

My weekly show being in season

A piece of art fitting perfectly on a wall space

Succeeding on the first try
(as a designer, a win on the first client call is rare, pure bliss)

Every sock having its pair post-wash

Typing in my password by memory alone

“I totally understand what you’re saying.”

Getting the concert tickets
(surviving the queue, a rare occurrence)

What good things keep happening to you? Maybe start writing them down, day after day after day.

the same thing, said in other words:

My grandmother… taught me that survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention. Yes, her letters said [painful things] like Dad’s cough is getting worse, we have lost the house, there is no money and no work, but also that the tiger lilies are blooming, the lizard has found that spot of sun, and the roses are holding despite the heat.

My grandmother knew what a painful life had taught her: the success or failure, the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity of delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

The reward for attention is always healing.

// Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

the same thing, said in music I love:

Thanks for reading. I hope everything works out for you today!!!

Xx
Aubrey

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Piecing together these ‘art appreciation’ posts throughout the weekend is becoming my new favorite thing.

I’ve been working very full days lately. (I’m a creative director & brand designer!) Lots of head-down focused work — simultaneously tweaking a lot of tiny details and presenting huge finished projects.

All week long at my desk, I flood the room with art: letting new album releases play all the way through, playing artist interviews, live performances, longer podcast conversations, etc. My space really sets the tone for how well I’m able to create, and lately I’ve had quite the little creative haven.

(It helps that my office is bright blue!)

I’m really finding that being surrounded by art (and the artists themselves) is making me way better at my job. More than just playing background music, it’s so energizing to feel like a part of a huge creative conversation. It gives me a giant pep in my step as I tick down my to-do list.

Enjoy great art, make great art. Repeat.

It’s always fun to share what I find, and what finds me. Here’s what I collected & obsessed over this week:

Bruno

Bruno Mars is back — just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it. His new album is perfect for these warmer days we’re getting, and a lot of the songs make for a great walking vibe (which we know I’m obsessed with right now.)

Can’t get enough of these three:

Harry

What do you think of the new Harry Styles? At first, I was like idkkkk — but the more I listen, the more I like. Orchestra meets choir meets club?! I might be growing obsessed with it…

These are the four songs that I’m repeating off the bat:

American Girls has just enough 1D sound to make me really like it. Very Four (thank GOD!)

Coming Up Roses feels like some sort of special Harry’s House album performance with a live orchestra. I LOVE the strings! Love. Like, imagine Matilda or Boyfriends with a movie-like soundtrack of strings like this. The dream I didn’t know I had!

Carla’s Song & Season 2 Weight Loss have serious Djo energy, and I want to hear Marcus Mumford sing Coming Up Roses.

And I can’t wait to watch his Netflix concert film ASAP.

p.s. I loved this interview:

Did I mention that I love hearing people talk about their work?!

I always like how thoughtfully filmed Zane Lowe’s interviews are. (Ed Sheeran’s interview had the best shots of the nature on his huge property.)

This interview with Harry has visuals of Paris that make it feel so comforting to watch. And goofy as Zane Lowe may be, I love how he talks about what he likes:

“‘It’s a human right to have taste and to exercise that taste.’ Asking yourself, ‘What do I like?’ is the first step to achieving that ultimate goal of expression. What do I like?”

I still think about this exchange he and his co-hosts had on the radio a while ago:

[Zane] “I used to get frustrated when people would say, ‘Oh, you just like everything.’ It would always really wind me up. And then I started feeling kind of bad for those people. Because the people that say that kind of stuff only like 3 things or 4 things.

And that’s fine! You can be dedicated and in love with one artist and just be a ride or die. You can have bands that you love — but don’t close the door on experience.

So, yeah, I do love everything. I get to choose what I play, so I choose what I love. Don't worry about the people who say you love too much. Go and find other things to fall in love with.”

[Co-host] “I actually wish I loved more stuff. Like—this is not related to music at all—but sometimes I’m watching Sports Center in the summer and I’m like, Damn, I wish I liked golf, I wish I liked baseball.”

[Zane] “That’s it, man! Your curiosity introduces you to new things, and you fall in love with them. Open up your heart. That’s where it starts.”

What We Said

If you’re looking for a chatty podcast to start listening to, this is my #1 rec.

I just know anyone who tunes into What We Said is my exact kind of person. Iykyk how Chelsey & Jaci are such comfort creators.

WWS is mostly casual (they react to unhinged story submissions that are honestly very funny), but they’re both brilliant creative people. I’m obsessed with the conversations they have about doing what you love, caring for your creativity, going all in on new hobbies, etc.

It feels encouraging without making you feel like you have to go on a self-improvement rampage.

Loved this episode so much recently:

Honorable mentions (ofc)

+ This is a lovely cozy WFH-vibe album I came across!

+ Like everyone, I’ve been devouring Love Story on Hulu. Say what you will about the sometimes-cringe acting (there is a decent amount), they are everything:

+ I’m counting DOWN to Raye’s album, This Music May Contain Hope. That album name! This girl!!! This video. Talent cityyyy.

And yes, I still can’t stop listening to Prizefighter BTW. Every couple of days, someone new texts me — “I am obsessed with the new Mumford & Sons album!” and I’m just like, I KNOW! Album of the year maybe….

So good. Creators keep creating. I love it!!!

Happy art hunting!

xx
Aubrey

How are you feeling now that Spring (I think) really is beginning?

With the blip of February behind us, I’m looking at daylight savings to quite literally save me. March is shaping up to be wonderful: we’ll have plenty of reality tv to enjoy (a SLOMW binge awaits + Taylor’s Bachelorette season is starting), plus I can bear the thought of having plans in the evening without dreading a drive home in the pitch black.

Looking at my own crowded calendar, Spring will definitely ask for more energy from me. It is as haunting as it is exciting. I’m defrosting my leave-the-house persona and decoding what a very winter-y winter taught me:

• A strong case of flu B alone reminded me how nice it actually is to 1) move my body and 2) leave my house.

• My work days are chock-full of deeply creative projects, so I’m continuously landing at 5pm craving an activity that can help my mind untangle itself, without numbing out and losing momentum. I finally learned to needlepoint and make sourdough — only a few years late to the trend!

• I’ve had lots of long, good conversations with friends the last few months about where we are and where we want to go next — as in considering our life purpose while also trying to put girls trips on the calendar. While I used to exclusively journal to process, external processing has been a new and very helpful change of pace. I want to say yes to friendship as much as possible this year.

Like I said, March is shaping up to be great!

If I’m looking to keep up with the energized Spring life — which I am — it’s going to have to be very simple, like January & February have been. I’m reminding myself daily that I am not a project or a problem to solve.

I know what I need! You probably do, too. It’s been the same since we were kids: eat a good lunch, move your body outside, spend time with your friends, watch fun things, listen to great music, talk nicely to yourself and others. That’s kind of... it?

Enjoying life — how crazy!

This girl described my feelings perfectly:

That all being said, music makes great company for taking care of yourself. I’ve been curating all my favorites to help me wake up with the rest of nature these next few weeks.

These are my two go-to playlists right now:

For [power] walking:

When a song plays that hits just the right tempo, my mom always says, “This would make the best walking song.”

She’s onto something. We all know the iconic woman who walks around the neighborhood with her athleisure on, pumping her arms and stepping to the beat of her favorite song. Power-walking perfection.

I’m trying to be her.

I’ve been adding to this playlist for a while, anytime I hear a song that I know my mom would deem “the best walking song.”

(I always imagine these would be great running songs too. I wouldn’t know — runner friends, please confirm!)

(For what it’s worth, Downtown is THE power walking song. Trust!!!)

For talking [nicely to yourself]:

In the spirit of taking care of ourselves —

Admittedly, I love a “cheesy” affirmation. I love a little Pinterest drawing with a positive saying. I write things down and say them out loud, because I need a lot of help remembering that they’re true.

My sister-in-law and I got hooked on Gut Punch a few weeks ago, and then Charlie Puth’s songs came out, and it seemed like every song was about talking nicely to yourself. Not beating yourself up all the time.

Like I said before, often what we need the most is what we’ve always needed, the stuff we assume is “so obvious.” Maybe it even feels slightly embarrassing that we can’t seem to believe it already:

I am good / I’m a fun person / I’m doing a good job / it’s okay to cry it out / I’m worth more than just what I accomplish / I can handle what comes my way

Repeat the things you need to hear. It works!!!

Here’s a “pep talk” playlist I made for me, for my friends, and for you:

Sending you all the best new Spring energy!

See you around the neighborhood!

Xx
Aubrey

One of my many favorite parts of art appreciation is discovering the “small world” of artists and collaborations. Not only is everyone’s talent is on full display lately, but they’re all doing it together!

Prizefighter

Payday round one has arrived: the new Mumford album is here.

Obviously I’ll be diving in more with time, but I can’t believe how good this is at first listen!! I had the hardest time focusing at work yesterday because I kept getting sucked in, pulling up the lyrics, etc. I’m texting everyone I know: “Go listen to this ASAP.”

I can’t remember the last time an album was immediately no skips for me. And I was nervous! I wasn’t obsessed with their last album, Rushmere. Delta has always been my reigning favorite. Right off the bat, Prizefighter has all that 2018 sound I’ve been craving. The more I watch clips of the band talking about it, the more I can tell how alive their creative energy is! You can feel it!!

Then there’s all the collaborators:

I clocked the Bon Iver backing vocals on this immediately. Other producing and writing credits include Jon Bellion (!!!), Aaron Dessner, Brandi Carlisle, and Finneas. Gigi Perez and Gracie Abrams’ voices are the smoothest, most perfect features. Prodigies, prodigies, prodigies.

All these lyrics? I’m bursting!!

I cannot choose a favorite song. Run Together was my initial #1, but after every song in my first few listens I genuinely said, “That one’s my favorite.”

Go run to listen!

Charlie Puth

Another musical prodigy, and one of the million albums coming out this Spring that I’m excited about! I haven’t tuned into Charlie Puth’s music for a while (that yellow album in 2015 was peakkk.) He’s married now with a kid on the way, and it seems from the outside that his spark for making art is coming alive because of those big life changes.

P.S. I’ve been having so many good conversations with the people in my life about how we talk to ourselves — how much it matters!! So far, all three songs from Charlie’s album have that tone of self-kindness and hope for what’s coming.

“You know it means something when you live one more day.” I am blasting!!!

P.P.S. He slayed that national anthem at the Super Bowl.

The Lawrence Universe

A third example of my favorite genre: prodigies making pop music.

You know when you meet someone and slowly realize they know all the same people you do? That’s Lawrence in musician form. My brother used to play them in the car on the way to school, and the small world (or giant universe) around this band has only kept growing, now a decade later.

(Plus, as a middle sister that’s super close with her brothers, I live for Lawrence’s sibling dynamic.)

The prodigy, Jon Bellion, collaborates with Clyde Lawrence a lot. They worked together The Album for the Jonas Brothers. (Aptly named — that is the Jonas Brothers album IMO.) Jon also co-produced Lawrence’s Family Business album, which has some of the most clever and relatable writing I’ve heard in a long time:

I was recently loving this Jackie Evans song, and my friend Jill said “You know Clyde helped on keys?” Of course he did! His fingerprints are all over the art I like.

There’s more! This year, Lawrence created a musical comedy show on Broadway, currently starring Jake Shane (so my friends and I are dying.)

And yes, Jonathan Groff lives in the Lawrence orbit too. Gracie starred alongside Jonathan last year on Broadway. (Head back to Amy’s podcast if you want more of that good energy.)

Dead. So good:

Moral of my story: Anything Lawrence touches turns to pure gold! We need more artists to lead with this collaborative spirit. For our sake, I hope genius artists never stop working with genius artists!

Honorable mentions:

These are the other random songs stuck in my head this month. Before the Mumford album took me over yesterday, all week I’d get in my car or start my walk and queue up these five in a row every time.

Thanks for reading! Thank God for talented people!!!

Happy art hunting!

Xx

Aubrey

I’ve been really paying attention to creators who seem really in their element. It’s the most energizing feeling to notice when people are clearly proud of what they’re making and having a good time doing it. It makes you crave it for yourself:

What am I good at that is also good for me?

Here are some recent finds lighting a fire under me personally — a movie, some podcasts, a live show, a content creator, AND, of course, lots of music.

Jessie Buckley (& Hamnet)

I finally watched Hamnet!!

In short, what made Hamnet so good is the artists behind it — Jessie Buckley first and foremost. Everything about her performance was amazing. Jessie is the reason Hamnet is more like a feeling than a movie.

You can tell that the whole cast felt that from her too, and that they all genuinely loved making this movie together as a gift to everyone else. Collective creative energy and admiration for your team can’t be beat.

My million & one favorite details about Hamnet:

Amy Poehler x Jonathan Groff

Amy’s podcast, Good Hang, is the BEST. Her circle of guests and friends is the kind you want to be a part of (& we kind of get to be!) Amy seems totally in her element in this new phase of her career. Her lightheartedness makes her both funny AND sincere when she talks to people — a balance I really admire and aspire to have.

She just had Jonathan Groff on and it was the best episode yet. I listened twice! It was hilarious (the Dorothy screams, I was dying), but it was equally as inspiring to listen to Jonathan talk. He’s a performer who loves what he does.

Starting at the 59 minute mark is the best part. For context, Jonathan’s last Broadway show, Merrily We Roll Along, was written in 1981 but had a short run. It basically failed until it was revived last year, and then it won a Tony! The way Jonathan described that creative process and the long life of a piece of work was really special:

“They put their heart and souls into [Merrily] and they pushed out that boat, and it was not received. But because it was crafted so well and was such a beautiful piece, 40 years later you’re getting this boat coming back around.

It gives me such faith in when we’re creating things… if you do something with your whole heart, it can continue to resonate and stand the test of time.” LOVE !!!

Then he brings up these lyrics from the musical:

“It’s this idea that you can have these dreams as a kid, and it’s not something that you either make happen or you repress, but that you take this dream and you figure out what it was and what it still means to you. ‘Taking dreams, readjusting them.’ Being in relationship with the past, but not having it hold you down.”

Perfect!! I need to watch the film of Merrily soon. This also reminded me to go back and watch Jonathan’s Tony Award speech. “I walk through life with an open heart because you let me know that I could.” Byeee I cry every time.

Eric Church

I saw the Eric Church concert film in IMAX last week. A bit random, but I went per my dad’s request and OMG.

The first 30 seconds of this will tell you everything you need to know:

He’s bringing the strings out, he’s bringing the horns out. Full force. An 8+ person choir… what I thought was a country concert was insanely cinematic. This man is in his creative element, even after decades of making music.

During the live show he said:

“I have two young boys. And I find that in their life right now, music is what happens in the background of the other stuff that they’re doing. And when I grew up, music was everything that I was doing. I still believe in that. I still believe it’s the most powerful thing in the world. That’s what this record is about.”

Ummmmm !!!

Not to mention this:

Jaci Marie

This is a different kind of rec, but it’s my current favorite creator I follow!

What We Said is another of the few podcasts I tune into every week. Jaci is one of the co-hosts and has been making the best content on her own page lately.

She has shared on the pod that her goal for the year is to create more, so to see it happening and feel her excited creative energy through the art is so fun. She is a great mix of relatable (her content about trying to become a morning person has been killing me) and really visually creative and sharp. As a photographer, she understands how to take visuals and pour her personality into them. I loveee.

She also always talks about the importance of creators’ involvement and ideas within the world of brand deals and influencers. As a marketing girl, this peaked my interest! This ad of hers spoke to that — perfection.

Honorable mentions

+ Can you believe how many albums are coming out the next few months? Payday!!! I can’t wait to seriously lock in and listen as the weather gets warmer. Maybe there is hope for our winter blues once and for all.

+ Country music is coming back with all this sun coming our way. I’m starting with Ella Langley’s and Luke Combs’ new songs on a loop:

+ I saw a TikTok about how Katy Perry had eight global hits on one album in 2012. Talk about in your element! Pop icon!!! Perfect reason to repeat this month’s theme song (“every February you’ll be my Valentine”)

(Shouting out the Glee version as well, bc duh!)

Thanks for reading! I hope your week is full of good art to love. Go find what gets you in your element and make some things!

Xx

Aubrey