Nothing ever goes away
until it has taught us what we need to know.
I wrote the first edition of Branches (or Excellent Things, as I called it back then) on New Year’s Day 2016, nearly eight years ago.
“If you were trying to live an excellent life, you’d limit the content you consumed to only the best…
…For some reason, it’s difficult to keep that up. You keep clicking on things you shouldn’t.One of the best things about the internet is that it gives you unlimited chances for content redemption.
Every time you sink into the morass, the internet gives you a new day, a new chance to get back to the excellent.”
Each edition of Branches is an attempt to distill something excellent from the nearly infinite amount of content out there.
I call it ‘an attempt’ because I don’t always get it right. There are things I recommended then that I wouldn’t, or couldn’t now. Things that haven’t passed the test of time - Making a Murderer, my favourite Fitzroy North cafe (now closed), Snapchat’s Spectacles.
Eight years is a long time, and a lot of content.
I’ve gone back and reread every edition, and surfaced up a list of the things I still love now.
I have an eight year old son, so you will find in the list an absence of books and movies. Things that fit better into the long breaks that haven’t really existed since he was born.
This is not an objective list. I’m not sorry for including seven links to live recordings of Bon Iver songs.
I am still grateful to the people who introduced me to excellent things along the way.
My high school friend Josh who introduced me to Pitchfork.com in 1999. Kanyi for introducing me to Nicolas Jaar’s Essential Mix as we sat in Adirondack chairs, our feet in a shallow river in Big Sur. This Paul Graham tweet for causing me to read Barbarian Days.
I’m forty today.
These won’t all stick with you, but if one does, then all of this will have been worthwhile.
TV/Movie: 📺 | Essay: 📝 | YouTube: 🎥 | Music: 🎶 | Podcast: 🎧 | Book: 📖
Bon Iver - Blood Bank (Live at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA, 2019) 🎥 🎶
Bon Iver - "Heavenly Father" (Acapella) | Live at Sydney Opera House 🎥 🎶
Fast response times signal social connection in conversation 📝
Frank Ocean - I Miss You (Live At The Bowery Ballroom In New York City!) 🎥 🎶
Good 🎥
Havoc 📝
Jamie XX - Gosh 🎥 🎶
Kanye West Sunday Service - Easy On Me (for Virgil Abloh’s funeral) 🎶
People underestimate how enjoyable and engaging just waiting is. 📝
Richard Hammond explains what he experienced during his coma 🎥
Saying Yes More Slowly Will Allow You to Say No More Often 📝
The Fair Play Deck: A Couple's Conversation Deck for Prioritizing What's Important 🃏
To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past 📝
“I remember that time that you told me,
you said “Love is touching souls”
Surely you touched mine ’cause
Part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time.”
— Joni Mitchell, ‘A Case of You’
Happy bday